Canadiens' Goalie Week: Patrick Roy

Each hockey fan has bought a special story about how they bought into this lovely recreation of ours (no soccer shouldn’t be the gorgeous recreation, there’s just one place for diving and it is on the Olympics, not on the pitch). Likelihood is, when you have been born within the late Nineteen Seventies or early ’80, you witnessed Saint-Patrick’s arrival on the hockey scene.

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My dad launched me to hockey after I was 5 years outdated, in the beginning of the 1985-1986 season. He had at all times been a Quebec Nordiques fan and so needed me to root for his staff, however I simply could not do it. The Canadiens‘ goaltender had caught my eye and I ended up watching each recreation sporting pillows on my legs and mimicking his each save, all the way in which to the Stanley Cup last and eventual win.

Roy’s combativeness, his want to win and his supreme confidence, which many deemed cockiness, made him my favourite nearly immediately. It quickly grew to become obvious that I had picked a great one.

As a inexperienced rookie, within the Spring of 1986, he led a Montreal Canadiens staff that nobody anticipated to win to it is twenty third Stanley Cup. In 20 video games performed, he gained 15 occasions and posted nice numbers. A 1.93 goals-against common and a .923 save share guided the Habs all the way in which to the massive prize and when all the pieces was mentioned and finished, Roy’s postseason efficiency earned him the primary of three Conn Smythe Trophies he would win over his profession as playoffs MVP.

He quickly grew to become the face of the franchise and allowed Montreal to win its twenty fourth Stanley Cup in 1993. As soon as once more, he was at his finest when the event known as for it and he registered 16 wins in simply 20 video games, posting a .929 SP and a 2.13 GAA. Futhermore, throughout that conquest, the Habs gained ten time beyond regulation video games in a row, a file that will effectively by no means be crushed. When the sport went to time beyond regulation, Roy grew to become invincible and rocked the type of confidence that made his teammates really feel like they too have been untouchable.

In these playoffs, Roy even allowed himself to wink at Tomas Sandstrom after making an ideal save within the further body of the finals’ fourth recreation. That wink was caught by many on TV and by photographers as effectively. The goaltender’s basis even made a T-shirt immortalizing the feat months later.

Unsurprisingly, Roy was as soon as once more named playoffs MVP in that quest for the Canadiens’ twenty fourth Stanley Cup, a totally deserved honor contemplating how shut the wins had been.

Roy spent 12 years in Montreal racking up 289 wins in 551 video games (which is type of humorous as a result of that quantity can also be his last profession wins tally) good for third place behind Carey Price at 361 and Jacques Plante at 314. He completed his time in Montreal with a .904 SP and a 2.78 GAA.

Related: Canadiens: Tremblay Lit the Match, Houle Was Taken for a Ride…

Whereas his time in Montreal ended with a whole catastrophe when he was omitted to dry in internet by rookie coach Mario Tremblay and advised staff president Ronald Corey that he had performed his final recreation in Montreal, the reconciliation was inevitable. In 2008, Saint-Patrick got here dwelling when the Habs retired his quantity and began his speech with:

Tonight, I am coming dwelling.

The previous goalie even patched issues up with Tremblay in 2021, making enjoyable of the incident in an Uber Eats industrial.

After being traded from the Canadiens to the Avalanche, the goaltender led the Colorado outfit to the franchise’s first two Stanley Cups, successful the Conn Smythe trophy of their second conquest in 2001. Roy is the one participant to have claimed the playoffs MVP trophy with two completely different groups, to have gained it thrice and to have finished so in three completely different a long time. Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Bobby Orr and Bernie Dad or mum all gained the Conn Smythe twice, however none of them might seize a 3rd one.

Associated

Canadiens’ Goalie Week: Carey Price
Canadiens’ Goalie Week: Jose Theodore

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