IT HAD TO BE LOU
Lamoriello the right man to bring Roy back behind an NHL bench
PATRICK Roy did not have to talk about the “magnitude of me,” to borrow a phrase from Reggie Jackson of 1978 vintage. The Canadiens took those words out of his mouth upon the iconic No. 33’s return to Montreal on Thursday when he strode behind the Islanders bench in his capacity as head coach.
We have always known that Roy is Royalty in Montreal, but a national monument across the border? Conflating the Hall of Fame netminder with the country of Canada was a bit much, don’t you think, when the Habs welcomed him back with a video tribute synched to the national anthem?
Roy was back in his element in the Montreal rink at which he had not been featured since Nov. 14, 2015, when he coached the Avalanche against the Habs. Nearly nine years of hearts growing fonder for the legend who somewhat incongruously returned with the Islanders.
The coach had been exiled from the NHL following his messy exit from Colorado and unkempt split from Joe Sakic following the 2015-16 season. Job after job came up. Job after job went without Roy getting an interview, even last summer after coaching the QMJHL Quebec Remparts to the Memorial Cup. Somehow, Roy had become radioactive. Somehow, Roy had become too big for an organization. Until Lou. Here’s the thing about Lou Lamoriello. He has always thrived working with strong personalities. No one was more hard-headed than Jacques Lemaire. Well, maybe Pat Burns was. It’s probably close. Lamoriello won a Cup with each of them in New Jersey.
Lamoriello has constructed locker rooms with strong personalities. New Jersey was never vanilla when the likes of Scott Stevens, Claude Lemieux, Bobby Holik and Marty Brodeur filled the room. If you have the chance sometime, ask Sean O’Donnell what the Devils’ room was like during the 2001 final in which the team went down in seven to Colorado and Roy.
And he has always been willing to walk the road less traveled. As GM, he did the first significant rental deal in league history, leasing Phil Housley from Calgary in exchange for Tommy Albelin in 1996. He jumped the market and traded for Ilya Kovalchuk. Acts that are often described as uncharacteristic couldn’t be more characteristic of Lamoriello. People never know what he is going to do next.
I did know, however, that he was not going to allow the Islanders to go down this year with Lane Lambert behind the bench. The only surprise is that it took this long. Roy is as charismatic a coach as there is in the NHL. He is one of the greatest stars to ever coach in the league.
And he can coach. He can teach. His junior teams were structured and disciplined. His résumé both behind the bench — where he won the Jack Adams in his first year coaching the Avalanche in 2013-14 — and on the ice precedes him.
Patrick Roy is back in the league. Flags are flying. Of course, it took Lamoriello to hire him. Of course it did.
It is the precedent, stupid. Brendan Gallagher’s fivegame suspension for his open-ice elbow to Adam Pelech’s head midway through Thursday’s match was about half the sentence the Habs agitator deserved. This was egregious.
Yet, within maybe an hour after the incident, the NHL, in the person of VP of player safety George Parros, had determined the suspension would be five games or less. Without talking to Gallagher. Without talking to Pelech (what a concept!). Nope, five games or less.
We knew that once the league announced Gallagher would have a phone hearing. Suspensions of six games or more can be levied only after in-person hearings.
The thing is, though, that the suspension is well in line with ones that preceded it. According to a post on X, formerly Twitter, by Jeff Veillette, the league has handed down 164 suspensions during Parros’ tenure. Only nine were for six games or more, with 119 for one or two games.
Parros checks precedents and adheres to them the way the Supreme Court does not these days. The league obviously endorses this approach. Parros is but a mouthpiece.
It is up to the NHLPA and firstyear executive director Marty Walsh to stop the madness and demand that the bar be reset so that stiffer punishments would accrue to head-hunters.
Jacob Trouba’s elbow to the head of Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev toward the end of the second period Friday was not only worthy of the two-game suspension he received, but was as gratuitous as it gets.
After escaping suspension for his stick to the side of Trent Frederic’s head earlier in the year, the captain said, “It was not an excusable thing.”
Neither was this.
Cole Caufield sliding to the Canadiens at 15th overall in 2019 because of perceived style issues despite being the most natural and most gifted goal scorer in the draft is kind of analogous to Mike Bossy sliding to the Islanders at 15 in 1977, don’t you think?
Good for Tom Fitzgerald getting a contract extension as president of hockey ops and GM of the Devils, but I just wonder how long it would have been if he’d gotten his team a goalie.