MONTREAL — Patrick Roy talks about what this crowd is like, how Montreal fans can make the moment special, and how the media will give fans all the information they want about the legend. We are well aware that the desire to provide can be overwhelming.
And he did everything in his power to avoid it.
The game was between his team, the New York Islanders, and the Montreal Canadiens. The team has Roy’s name and number 33 in the rafters, and the team has a giant mural of Roy’s last Stanley Cup championship. Next to Bell Center.
He kept saying for hours before the game that it wasn’t Patrick Roy’s return. It wasn’t about him.
Roy kept the Islanders at the team hotel Thursday morning to avoid the circus a typical morning skate would cause. He walked into the room full of reporters gathered for the 4:15 p.m. ET press conference 10 minutes early, a sign that he just wanted this to be over, and everything he said was It only further solidified that he wanted to get through this. He was able to focus on the task at hand: preparing the Islanders to win games.
And he went a step further to avoid the spotlight on himself. At some point Thursday afternoon, Roy made a special request to the Canadians.
Typically, visiting coaches at the Bell Center have to walk on the ice from the visiting locker room to the bench, but it is one of the only rinks in the NHL where they can do so. Some coaches describe walking on the ice as dangerous when it is still wet and slippery.
But it also puts Roy on the front lines before games, being the first to emerge from the Islanders’ locker room, walking onto the Bell Center ice in front of the fans, and at least potentially putting Roy on the front lines rather than the team. It had the potential to create a spectacle.
So he asked the Canadians if he could use a tunnel to the ice and slip onto the bench, preferably unnoticed. The issue was brought to Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton, who quickly provided an answer.
Of course, we could also use the tunnel. He’s Patrick Roy.
So just before the game started, Roy and the coaching staff slipped onto the Islanders’ bench, largely unnoticed by the fans in attendance. perfection.
Normally, visiting coaches have to take a treacherous walk across the Bell Center ice to get to the bench. I think having your name and number hanging in the rafters comes with some kind of privilege. pic.twitter.com/40J82mgF5l
— ArponBasu (@ArponBasu) January 26, 2024
But then the Canadians did something that ruined Roy’s plans. Everyone knew he would be accepted back to Montreal as the Islanders’ coach. They didn’t know this would happen.
And so was Roy. Perhaps that was the point.
The Bell Center erupts when a montage of Patrick Roy plays during the Canadian national anthem. pic.twitter.com/UQNiUeiChU
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 26, 2024
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Roy said. “I don’t usually look at my watch, but when I did, I saw something. In a game like this, you just want to concentrate. I’ve always said this: This is about me. It was more about our team.
“We just wanted to make sure we could focus on our game.”
So suddenly the Canadians were allowing their Hall of Fame goaltender to use the tunnel, and they weren’t either. They tried everything they could to keep Roy focused on the game and that was all he wanted.
“It was definitely a great moment and I think it was well-deserved,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “At first I didn’t really know what they were rooting for until I looked up at the Jumbotron. I think they wanted to get it resolved early. I think it was a great moment for Patrick and the fans.
“I think our team fed off of that energy.”
For Canadians, goalkeeping is, and always has been, a special position in North American professional sports. It was the same when Roy did it for 10 years, it was the same when Carey Price did it for 15 years, and it’s the same today.
On this night, the blame fell on Sam Montembeau of Bécancourt, Quebec. Bécancourt is a small town along the St. Lawrence River, about halfway between Roy’s hometown of Quebec City and Montreal, a 90-minute drive.
Montembault, 27, is too young to remember watching Roy play — he was 6 when Roy retired in 2003 — but for Montrealers and Canadian fans, Roy is A Canadian goaltender who’s not too young to know what that means and where he sets the bar.
“It was so much fun to see the audience screaming throughout the national anthem,” Montembeau said. “If that doesn’t get you in the mood to play hockey, I don’t know what will.”
Just four minutes into the first period, the Islanders had the puck in the offensive zone and defenseman Noah Dobson sent a pass from the blue line to the front of the net, where Mathew Barzal was waiting. He ran across the net against the grain and tried to slip his puck into the net. Montembault denied him, then denied him again on the rebound.
He finished the night with 43 saves, including three saves with 25 seconds left in regulation, as the Canadiens won 4-3 while the Islanders were eager to beat their new coach. A performance is special under any circumstances, but these circumstances make it even more special.
“Obviously, we’ve had a long history of goaltending here and we’ve had a lot of great goaltenders,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “It certainly means a little more, especially for someone from around here. He took on that role and did his best to be that type of goalie.”
There was a time when moments like Thursday night’s at the Bell Center happened regularly, and standing ovations were the norm. However, this is not the case these days. The Canadiens are in the midst of a rebuild, and 31 years have passed since Roy last led them to a Stanley Cup championship in 1993. Only five players who wore Canadiens uniforms on Thursday were born at the time this event occurred.
Canada’s glorious past casts a long shadow, and the lack of nights to celebrate it is partly by design. That’s because its past has set an impossibly high bar, and the franchise wants to focus its efforts on creating a new modern history. Worth celebrating in the future.
Not long after Montembeault made two saves against Barzal, the Canadians continued on the power play when Hudson Fassing put the puck on the glass. They passed the puck to Sean Monahan in the slot center, who sent it to Juraj Slavkowski on the right side. The 2022 No. 1 draft pick is under constant pressure to shoot more pucks. His mother also tells him to shoot more pucks. This was the perfect opportunity to do that.
Except he didn’t.
Slavkowski collected the puck, made the read and made a better play in return. He slipped the puck in front of Suzuki, who tucked it home to take the lead and put the Canadians on the road to victory.
Se jeu de pass 👌
Susie’s power play!#gohubsgo pic.twitter.com/nsPUE6VVAz
— Canadian Montreal (@CanadiensMTL) January 26, 2024
“I’ve talked to him before and it’s clear that people want him to make shots, but I don’t see the point in making shots if you’re not in a position to make them.” Suzuki said. “He obviously made a great read. It was a quick tip for me and a great way to start the game.”
Slavkowski is essential to the future, but for Canadians to succeed, sometimes it’s important to understand their past. Understand it instead of being crushed by it. And watching the crowd at the Bell Center welcome Roy home was a good way for Slavkowski to understand that.
“I think great players mean a lot to the fans. It’s great to see a player like that come back and get a big standing ovation,” he said. “It was a little weird during the national anthem, but you don’t usually see that. But yeah, it was awesome to see all the fans cheering for someone that meant so much.”
Slavkovsky then broke out into a big smile, indicating that much of what was about to happen was a joke. However, there was probably some sincerity behind it.
“Hopefully,” he said. “I can be one of them.”
It’s okay to want to move on from your past. But sometimes that past can help drive the future.
(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
