Roys Will Be Roys (Wah Wah Wah)
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The Rocky Mountain News only ran the AP story on the Roys being suspended, and no other commentary that I could find. It's pretty cut-and-dry:
Goalie Jonathon [sic] Roy was suspended seven games for barreling into Bobby Nadeau and repeatedly hitting him. The suspensions were effective immediately and could go into next regular season.
The elder Roy, who was on the bench, denied playing any role in the melee, although he appeared to urge on his son with a wave.
That we know.
At the Denver Post, it was a bit more personal, with both Terry Frei and Adrian Dater offering their own perspectives on the incident. Frei cites his experience with junior hockey, and doesn't approve of teenagers fighting or of Patrick Roy's participation in the whole mess:
It's this simple: There's something wrong with the tacit approval of fighting involving teenage players. As at the NHL level, proponents argue that embracing the "honorable" one-on-one, five-minutes-for-fighting confrontation as a necessary part of the game is not the same thing as encouraging brawls, whether those involving everyone on the ice in this era, or the bench-emptying circuses of yore. But when talking about major junior, that's disingenuousness.
Plus, this incident seems to show that Patrick Roy, like his son, still has some growing up to do.
A wag of the finger, it appears.
Dater, on the other hand, has a more "Patrick Being Patrick" kind of take on everything, and offers a pretty interesting personal account of the famous Roy and his once-little son:
But like I said, I’m not at all surprised. Roy’s temper was legendary, and I experienced that firsthand, several times. He blew up at me several times, probably the biggest being after I wrote of his also-legendary incident when he smashed up the office of Bob Hartley in 1999, in Anaheim.
Roy smashed up Hartley’s office with his goalie stick, after being pulled briefly in a game, one in which the Avs won but Roy didn’t get credit for the victory. The Avs did a good job of keeping it quiet, but a few days later I got word of it and wrote about it. Roy not only came after me, he went on a kind of witch hunt around the team as to who leaked it. A few people were falsely accused, and it was a full-blown circus in the locker room for a while. Things blew over, but it strained relations between him and a couple players for a while.
Interesting stuff, to say the least.
Honestly, I'm not surprised Roy and his son were involved in an incident like this, especially knowing Roy's legendary temper and his total control over the Quebec Remparts organization. Roy is very much a dictator, and you have to expect that he orders his players to reflect his own temperament on the ice. That's part of the reason the Remparts have been so successful since Roy took over. It's also the reason this incident occurred.
I think Patrick Roy will weather this storm, and in a year or so, nobody will remember the brawl and his role in it will be forgotten. His son, however, I worry about, because he doesn't have the immense natural talent in net that his father had, which leaves only his reputation as a person to fall back on. And that's been sullied.
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I find
It interesting that Roy's name keeps coming up in um forums, as a good option as an Avs coach. Seems iffy to me. I liked cheering for Roy back in the day but.... ya.
by Hardshell_Taco_del_Lowayne on Mar 26, 2008 7:57 AM MDT reply actions
Re: I find
I've joked about Roy taking Q's place next season, but it's not going to happen. I have a feeling we'll see Roy as assistant coach somewhere in a few years before we see him as the head honcho. And there's no reason to think it will be in Colorado.
His time with the Remparts (which he owns) isn't over quite yet.
Roy Jr
The one thing that few people mention (I think only Dater does) is that Jonathon (sp?) Roy has absolutely no prior record as a trouble maker on the ice. He only had 6 PMs before this. Hopefully he won't only be remembered for this.
Re: Roy Jr
Yeah, it's true, he has no prior history, but with his father being who he is and the subsequent media coverage---and the severity and harshness of the beat down he laid upon the other goalie---this incident will be remembered for a long time. At least when the name "Jonathan Roy" is mentioned.
Roy espn article
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=joyce/080326
The thing i don't get
is why Naddue(the other goalie) didn't do anything, it's not like he was jumped from behind or anything, he clearly say Jonathon skated towardshim and it wasn't to shake hands. Seems to me the other guy did nothing so that Roy got a bigger suspension than if it was a fight which, if it's the case, is just as cheap and unsporting. I don't condone the action of Roy though, this is why everyone, especially here in Australia, doesn't like/respect hockey. All they think of hockey as is a fight. I've lost track of the amount of people i've told that i like hockey only to get a response along the lines of "yeah, i love the fights," "the fights are the best part" or "it's cool how they actually want you to fight"
As for the ESPN article i think it's a bit rich to say Roy was absolutely classless in leaving and the Canadiens weren't, Tremblay was just as classless leaving Roy in for the 9 goals to send a message about who the boss is, especially knowing how proud Roy is. Most goalies would be pissed and want to a trade.
Re: The thing...
Always remember that Patrick Roy is a polarizing figure in hockey. A lot of people hate him. There are still people that accuse him of wife-beating even though he never actually hit his wife (or at least she never publicly claimed that he did), that accuse him of all kinds of horrible things.
A lot of it is jealousy, a lot of it is just petty bullshit. Some of it is warranted.
Roy will always have his detractors, but his Stanley Cups and his records speak for themselves. He was a great goalie. Has he always been a great person? Well, has anyone?
Hockey players get paid to play hockey, not to be good people. Ideally, every hockey player would be a class act like Joe Sakic, but that's not how things go.
Re: Ouch
It's hard to believe that the Canadiens are still crying over something that happened in 1995. Boo F'in Hoo.
I have a feeling they're more upset that they haven't won a Cup since Roy did it for them in 1993. Again, cry me a river.
I can't say it enough: hockey teams don't (or shouldn't) pay players to be nice people. They pay them to win games. Roy did that. He deserves to have his jersey retired by every team that he helped to win games. Colorado already retired his number. Montreal should, too.
This pity party "he was so mean" crap is pathetic. Gordie Howe was an infamous dickhead, and at times a very dirty player. Did anyone, for a second, question that his jersey number should be retired? Hell no.
Roy is no different. He was one of if not the greatest hockey goalie of all time, and nothing else should matter to the teams he played for.
And now I'm done ranting.
Re: Ouch
That article was clearly written by a Canadiens fan, the whole thing's a character assassination piece, but then he follows it with a bit about him letting a disabled kid live his dream of scoring against his idol, which the author states that "Roy surely has forgotten it." How's he know whether Roy has or hasn't forgotten it. It was just another shot at him.
The other thing that's annoying me is it's not like the Canadiens decided to retire it last week, why has it taken this one incident for all the Roy haters to come out and say he's a bad human being and shouldn't have his jersey retired because of something that happened 13 years ago. Plus the Canadiens arent the classy team everyone makes them out to be, they drafted Claude Lemioux and they, or atleast Tremblay, only pulled him after 9 goals, if they were classy they would have pulled him after 4 or 5.
































