Patrick Roy

At 59 years old, Patrick Roy has this physical status:

Roy was drafted in the third round, 51st overall, in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, a team he disliked, being a fan of the rival Quebec Nordiques. His grandmother Anna Peacock was a big Canadiens fan, but died before seeing her grandson being drafted. Roy kept playing for the Granby Bisons of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) before being called up by the Canadiens. Despite the thoughts that he was not going to play for the team, on February 23, 1985, he made his NHL debut when he replaced the Canadiens' starting goaltender, Doug Soetaert, in the game's third period. Roy played for 20 minutes and earned his first NHL win without allowing a goal. After the game, he was reassigned to the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the AHL. Despite starting as a backup, Roy replaced Greg Moffett after he had equipment troubles during a game. He earned a win, became the starting goaltender for the playoffs and led the team to a Calder Cup championship with ten wins in 13 games.

In the following season, Roy started playing regularly for the Canadiens and took over the starting goaltender's job when incumbent Steve Penney was injured in January. He played 47 games during the regular season and won the starting job for the Stanley Cup playoffs, where he emerged as a star, leading his team to an unexpected Stanley Cup title and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs. As a 20-year-old, he became the youngest Conn Smythe winner ever and was chosen for the NHL All-Rookie Team.

Nicknamed St. Patrick after the victory, Roy continued playing for the Canadiens, who won the Adams Division in 1987–88 and in 1988–89, when they lost to the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup Finals. Roy, together with Brian Hayward, won the William M. Jennings Trophy in 1987, 1988, and 1989, as the Canadiens regularly allowed the fewest goals against. In 1989 and 1990, he won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender in the NHL and was voted for the NHL first All-Star team. In 1991–92, the Canadiens won the Adams Division again, with Roy having a very successful individual year, winning the William M. Jennings Trophy, Vezina Trophy and being selected for the NHL first All-Star team. Despite the successful regular season, the Canadiens were swept in the second round by the Boston Bruins, who stopped their playoff run for the fourth time in five years.

In the 1992–93 season, the Canadiens fell from first overall in March to finish the regular season third in their division behind title winner Boston Bruins and a resurgent second-place Quebec Nordiques. During the first round of the 1993 playoffs against the archrival Nordiques, Roy was in a goaltending duel against Ron Hextall; Hextall was also a Vezina and Conn Smythe winner with his previous team, the Philadelphia Flyers, when they had several ill-tempered post-season encounters with Roy's Canadiens in the 1980s. The Canadiens lost the first two games of the series with Roy letting in soft goals, and a newspaper in Roy's hometown district suggested that he be traded with the headline "NORDIQUES WIN GAME, BATTLE OF GOALIES," while the subhead added (Quebec goalie Ron) "HEXTALL GETS BETTER OF ROY." Nordiques Goaltending Coach Dan Bouchard also proclaimed that his team had "solved Roy." These comments seemed to fire up Roy, who responded by winning the next four games against the Nordiques (Roy was replaced for part of Game Five by backup André Racicot after being struck by a puck in the collarbone), sweeping the Buffalo Sabres in the next round and winning the first three against the New York Islanders to tie the record of an 11-game playoff winning streak. Roy also set a record with ten straight playoff overtime wins – two against Quebec, three against Buffalo, two against the New York Islanders (where he denied Benoît Hogue and Pierre Turgeon on breakaways during overtime) and three against the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals. Roy had led his team, which did not have a player that finished in the top twenty regular-season scoring, to the Stanley Cup championship and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner.

In 1994, the Canadiens were the defending champions but they were knocked out in the first round by the Boston Bruins. Nonetheless, that seven-game series was notable in the eyes of Montreal fans as Roy came down with appendicitis and missed Game 3. He convinced doctors to let him return for Game 4 and led the Canadiens to a 5–2 victory, stopping 39 shots. Roy was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, finishing third in voting behind winner Dominik Hašek and runner-up John Vanbiesbrouck.

Four games into the 1995–96 season, Mario Tremblay was hired as Montreal's new head coach, replacing Jacques Demers who had been fired. Roy and Tremblay, who had roomed together while teammates, had a notably strained relationship, with Tremblay regularly mocking Roy's English-speaking abilities. Roy was a frequent target of Tremblay during the latter's sports radio career. The two had almost come to blows in two incidents in 1995, one at a Long Island coffee shop before Tremblay was announced as a coach and after Tremblay allegedly fired a shot at Roy's throat during practice.

On December 2, 1995, in his 22nd game (and the team's 24th) of the 1995–96 season, Roy was in net against the Detroit Red Wings during Montreal's worst home game in franchise history, an 11–1 loss. Roy allowed nine goals on 26 shots, which was highly unusual, as star goalies are generally taken out of the game quickly on off-nights. During the second period, the crowd provided mock applause after Roy made an easy save, prompting him to sarcastically raise his arms in mock celebration. Tremblay finally pulled Roy in the middle of the second period in favour of Pat Jablonski.

During Molson Breweries' tenure as owner of the team, the rows immediately behind the Canadiens' bench were reserved for top Canadiens and Molson executives. Since these seats were not available to the public, the standard glass partitions that separate hockey spectators from the team benches were not installed behind the home bench of the Forum. Because of this unusual arrangement, an enraged Roy had no time to regain his composure before approaching the team's top brass who were in attendance and in their usual seats. Upon reaching the bench, Roy immediately stormed past his coach and told Canadiens President Ronald Corey "It's my last game in Montreal." The next day, Roy was suspended by the Canadiens.

At the time, Roy told the media that despite allowing five goals on 17 shots in the first, Tremblay kept him in net in order to humiliate him. In later interviews, Roy cited a general distaste with what he thought was a loosening of standards with the team.

Four days after the incident, the Canadiens traded Roy and captain Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Ručinský and Andrei Kovalenko. The return for Roy was seen as uneven at the time it was made, and eventually became known as one of the most one-sided deals in NHL history. Canadiens General Manager Réjean Houle at the time had been GM for only 40 days and faced criticism for making the trade instead of trying to resolve the tension between Roy and Tremblay.

In the 1995–96 season, after his mid-season trade from the Canadiens, Roy helped the Avalanche win their first Stanley Cup in their first season after moving from Quebec. He was a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy to Jim Carey.

In the 1996 Western Conference Semi-finals against the Chicago Blackhawks, Jeremy Roenick was stopped by Roy on a breakaway during overtime in Game 4, while apparently being hauled down by Avalanche defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh. The referee did not call for a penalty shot on the play and the Avalanche won in triple overtime on Joe Sakic's game-winning goal. Two days prior, Roenick had scored on an unchallenged breakaway to tie the game and send it to overtime, and the Blackhawks ended up winning Game 3. After Game 4, Roenick told the media, "It should have been a penalty shot, there's no doubt about it. I like Patrick's quote that he would've stopped me. I'd just want to know where he was in Game 3, probably getting his jock out of the rafters in the United Center maybe." Roy retorted with: "I can't really hear what Jeremy says, because I've got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ears." Roy and the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks in six games and went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Roy was a large part of the Avalanche–Red Wings rivalry, which also involved players Adam Foote and Brendan Shanahan, among others. The Avalanche and Red Wings met in the playoffs five times from 1996 to 2002, with the Avs winning in 1996, 1999, and 2000. The heated competition between teams is linked to the 11–1 Montreal loss to Detroit that precipitated Roy's mid-season trade to Colorado in December 1995, and in that season's 1996 Conference Finals Roy helped his new team eliminate first-place Detroit. During the Avalanche–Red Wings brawl in 1997, he fought Wings' goaltender Mike Vernon. The next season, he fought another Red Wings goaltender, Chris Osgood. In what would be Roy's final playoff meeting with Detroit, he was pulled after allowing six goals in Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, a game Detroit won 7–0 to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In 2000–01, Roy's Avalanche won the Presidents' Trophy for the best regular-season record. In the playoffs, his team advanced to the Finals, where they faced the defending champion New Jersey Devils, who were backstopped by Martin Brodeur, a star netminder who as a youngster had idolized Roy. In Game 4, while playing the puck behind his own net, Roy could not make a clearing pass, allowing the Devils to score into an empty net to tie the game. Roy had his worst game of the Finals in a 4–1 loss during Game 5, which gave the Devils a 3–2 series lead, but rebounded in Game 6 by stopping 24 shots for his then-record 19th career playoff shutout in a 4–0 victory. The Avalanche jumped to a three-goal lead in Game 7 before conceding one consolation goal to win their second Stanley Cup. Roy was named playoff MVP for the third time in his career, an NHL record. Roy has said that he and his teammates had wanted to win it for Ray Bourque, who finally won his first Cup after 22 seasons in the NHL; Bourque who had previously played 21 seasons with the Boston Bruins had numerous playoff encounters against Roy when he was with the Canadiens.

Roy's final game was played against the Minnesota Wild on April 22, 2003, in a Game 7 overtime loss in the first round of the 2003 playoffs.

Patrick Roy announced his retirement on May 28, 2003.

Career achievements

* Shared with Brian Hayward

Source