Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen on Patrick Roy’s NHL return: “It’s good for the league”
Roy coached the Avs for three seasons, and is getting a second chance.
Patrick Roy’s first game as an NHL coach with the Colorado Avalanche might be the most memorable debut for anyone in league history.
Andrew Cogliano remembered it immediately, because he was here at Ball Arena (then called Pepsi Center) with the Anaheim Ducks.
“He and Bruce got into it in that first game, right? That’s what I remember the most,” Cogliano said.
Roy and Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau had one of the most chaotic exchanges between two head coaches the modern NHL has seen. It came after the final whistle of a 6-1 victory for the Avs. There was a scrum on the ice in the closing seconds that bled past when the clock hit 0.0, and it continued as the two coaches barked at each other.
The video of Roy banging on the glass partition between the two benches, bending it towards Boudreau, has been replayed countless times on YouTube and sports highlight shows over the past decade. It will probably show up on UBS Arena’s scoreboard in Long Island after the New York Islanders fired Lane Lambert and named Roy their new coach in a shock move Saturday afternoon.
“I think he’ll add a lot to the league,” Cogliano said. “He’s a fiery guy and obviously an amazing, phenomenal player. We’ll see how it goes for him on the Island.”
Roy is one of the three greatest goalies in NHL history, having won the Vezina Trophy three times, the Stanley Cup four times and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP three times. He is the only player in league history to win the Smythe three times — in 1986 and 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens and in 2001 with the Avalanche.
He retired after the 200203 season, then returned to Denver as the club’s coach at the start of the 2013-14 campaign. Roy won the Jack Adams Award after the Avalanche finished second in the Western Conference that year.
Nathan MacKinnon’s first three years in the NHL were with Roy as his coach. MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog are the only players left on the team who had significant experience playing for him.
“He’s obviously intense,” MacKinnon said. “It’s been a long time. But yeah, he’s very intense. Loves the game, loves hockey and I wish him the best of luck.”
Mikko Rantanen’s first year in North America was Roy’s last with the organization. He spent training camp with Roy, then nine NHL games with the Avs — six at the start of the year and three near the end — while spending most of the season in the AHL.
“I think he’s intense, from what I remember,” Rantanen said. “He demands hard work, which obviously all the coaches do, but his demand level is high. He just wants to work hard. That’s probably how he was as a player too.
“I am happy for him. I would say he probably deserves another chance. He did a pretty good job here, at least with looking at his record and stuff. It’s good for the league too, to have a legend like him back in the coaching (ranks).”
Roy’s tenure behind the bench was often eventful. That first game and his clash with Boudreau was a tone-setter. He did things his way, and often gets credited for being the coach who helped change the NHL when it comes to pulling the goalie in the third period.
He did it far sooner and under different circumstances than most coaches did before him, and most teams have adopted a strategy that is close to, if not always as aggressive, as Roy was.
Roy’s first Avs team was also an inflection point in the heated battle about the value of certain analytics in hockey. The way that 201314 team succeeded was not particularly sustainable, those who were well versed in the new wave of metrics contested, and the Avs missing the playoffs the next two seasons was some level of proof of that.
“Patty’s full of energy,” said Avs assistant coach Nolan Pratt, who was Roy’s teammate in 2000-01. “He was always really great to me when I played here with him. He was a part of my hiring when I came here to Denver before he left. I think he’ll do good things (with the Islanders) as well.”