A Colorado Avalanche fan struggles with the conflicts of losing her idol from the team she’s loved half her life.
Patrick Roy has said goodbye to the Colorado Avalanche. I may have to, too, at least for a while. I just don’t know if I can be a fan right now.
I got the news he had resigned in much the same way I got the news that he had retired — an offhand comment from a friend while I was in the car. Unfortunately, I was on my way to work. I had to turn around and go home. I couldn’t stop crying.
In a way, I’d been expecting the news since Thursday, April 7, 2016 — the day of the Dallas Stars game. Patrick Roy missed morning skate because of food poisoning. However, he’d been catching heat for the players’ ineptitude, and some were calling for Roy’s firing. In short, I thought it had happened.
It hadn’t. However, I think the idea entered his head around that time. The players were in a last, ignominious implosion that saw them lose eight of their nine games while still in playoff contention.
I think that’s the time when Patrick Roy realized he was dealing with alien entities, that these were professional hockey players who lacked a true will to win. Yes, his will to win is legendary, but in those games those players failed to show even the most basic level of a winning spirit.
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Some of us are teachers in what we can do naturally — I’m a natural-born reader, but I love teaching literacy. However, I just don’t think Roy had it in him to knock his head against that wall. I honestly think he can’t fathom athletes who lack a killer instinct.
I don’t mean to make this post a bash of the players — Mile High Sticking is still a fan site. And I have been a Colorado Avalanche fan since the Denver Grizzlies — since it was even rumored that Colorado was getting an NHL team again.
That’s part of what makes this all so hard. Being an Avs fan is a large part of my identity. But fandom isn’t like, say, buying a car. You can’t just research it and make a rational decision about it. I can’t anyway. For me it’s strictly from the heart — and my heart is black right now.
Some readers will question my Colorado Avalanche fandom, and that’s ok. Because I myself didn’t realize how far into the Cult of Patrick Roy I had entered. I had always thought that, if Patrick left the Avs like he left the Montreal Canadiens, I would hate him.
Well, the way he left the Avalanche may not have been quite so dramatic as his Montreal exit, but it was attention-grabbing. Just a few scant weeks before the season begins, Roy tendered his resignation via an outside PR firm. He didn’t even bother informing the Avalanche before the announcement.
I guess I’m ok with that. Maybe it’s because I’ve revered Roy for longer than the Colorado Avalanche have existed. Maybe it’s because I’m such an acolyte in the Cult of Patrick Roy.
But I think it’s because the Avalanche left Roy first. That slow implosion at the end of the season, when the players acted like they barely belonged in the AHL much less NHL — it was painful for me to watch. It must have been heartbreaking for a winner like Roy to have his name associated with that.
You may feel inclined to leave comments in the section below — that’s great. I think you should absolutely do so.
However, I may have expressed opinions in this post that you don’t appreciate and respect. Perhaps you’d like to chastise me. That’s ok. No offense, though, but it really doesn’t matter.
When it comes to the Colorado Avalanche, nothing will ever hurt worse than hearing that Patrick Roy has resigned.