The Return of the Saint (Patrick)

Thoughts on all That Is Patrick Rahh

Hey, I think we have the same barber.

Change of idea here. I started a mini-editorial a couple days agon on the return of Patrick Roy to Montreal after watching a TSN exclusive interview that did everything but actually show the interviewer giving Roy a hand job on-camera. The rough draft is below this but I got bored as I usually do when i find that I am not being entertained by what i am writing. You can read it if you wish, it's at the bottom of this piece but it's not very good - it's just a rough draft of where I was going with it.

The central idea was that 'History is written by the winners' and here was Patrick Roy rewriting history of his infamous walk-out.  I am old enough to remember that night Roy quit on the team. I even watched some of it, amazed that Detroit was already leading 7-1 and it was only the second period. I saw the clip that has been played repeatedly whenever a Patrick Roy/Montreal Canadiens story plays. I also remember some of the events of the following week and although I was not life and death involved with the shit storm happening in Montreal, I do recall reading about some of the events a bit differently from other sources other than Patrick Roy and TSN after the fact.

I remember thinking after 'Le Trade' how nice it was of the Habs that they traded Roy to the Quebec Nordiques which had recently been rebranded as the Colorado Avalanche. I was pretty perplexed at the move as at the time i truly believed that the Nordiques were legitimate Stanley Cup contenders with something to prove to a certain #1 draft pick Eric Lindros who refused to play for the team. With Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Claude Lemieux, Valerie Kamesky and Adam Deadmarsh in their prime, a Stanley Cup veteran and fellow psycho goalie Ron Hextall in net, and the incentive provided by Big E's snub, they only needed one or two more pieces to be taken seriously. Then they get Roy and Canadiens captain Mike Keane and I thought 'WTF, Montreal? Why not just give them the Cup?' and 'WTF Quebec? Couldn't wait one more year?'.

Did anyone know that this was Quebec's last attempt at rebranding itself?

Brought to you by OgieOglethorpe; The More You Know

So anyways, long editorial short, Roy left the Forum in mid-legend. He went on and won two more cups with Colorado. He had an ego which even by Montreal standards, was too large to fit in Quebec. Over the years Montreal has twisted it's collective memory into something akin to Jennifer Anistion leaving Brad Pitt.

Remember that kinder, gentler time when anything was possible?

Anyways, blah blah blah...Patrick Roy. He hated Coach Tremblay, Tremblay thought he was one of a core of players who were bigger than the team. Tremblay later stated he didn't know why Roy was so upset, he was only in the game for nine goals while he was behind the bench for all eleven. In the interview Roy singled out Vinnie Damphousse as being more of the coach's pet and he should have got in trouble before that game even started but didn't. Wow. Just wow, Patrick. Hold a grudge much? Yeah, the Vinnie Damphousse that went on to be Captain of the Canadiens the following year...so maybe, but still. Let's not blame VD for that night...

Anyways, I gave up on the article. Instead, let's just watch the results of Patrick Roy's parenting instead.

That's Frederick Puze-Roy, spazzing out at the end of a game and searching for his Ritalin during the Spengler Cup, a tournament with advertising standards are so low that it willingly prints semens on the back of the player jerseys and make them look more like a NASCAR entry than a hockey player. And yes that is a referee wearing a cow shirt advertising milk.

Wait. That was the wrong son. I meant this one...

Now there's Jonathon Roy, who had a similar hissy fit which was much more Canadian- after letting in seven goals, he took advantage of a line brawl to let his craziness shine through. The only thing probably more embarrassing than his goals against that night was Bobby Nadeau's choice of non-participation. I mean, seriously, what the hell? Needless to say, neither were drafted into the NHL. Nadeau is still playing university hockey, sporting a less than stellar 4.00 goals against average while Jonathon avoided jail time and instead to follow his dream of being another overly-sensitive overly-privileged singer who has daddy issues.

Anyways, to summarize, Roy was a great goaltender but a shitty human being who was charged with assaulting his wife and two children that have some self-control issues. He ditched a sinking team to go play with a Cup contending team because he wasn't being favoured in the dressing room. He also indirectly helped create the semi-no trade clause so much in use by so many players today. But no matter how TSN twists the return of Patrick Roy to Montreal, let's not forget the guy was still a bit of an asshat.

Pick a hole, any hole...

ROUGH DRAFT - only for those with nothing else to do...

As near everyone in Canada knows, tonight was the day St. Patrick returned to Montreal (again) and a chance to (again) recall the inglorious night (again) that Patrick Roy effectively announced he had quit playing for the Montreal Canadiens, way back nearly 20 years ago -December 2, 1995.  If recent 'in-depth' TSN reporting holds true, tonight was only a preview of what we can expect on that date, 20 months from now.

As I sat watching some of that exclusive interview and tried to keep from vomiting, I recalled a famous quote that history is 'written by the winners'. It was curious to hear Vinnie Damphousse's name brought up by Roy, a name I remember but didn't recall as having anything to do with Le Trade. Let's just say I'm old enough to remember a few details a bit more clearly during those times yet young enough to have been interested at the time.

So let's talk about how I remember history before it's completely rewritten by Patrick Roy and the TSN marketing team...


The 1995-96 Montreal Canadiens were a team that was decimated by the NHL's first lock out the previous year. It was so bad that they failed to even qualify for the playoffs, which during the time was unheard of. It was the first time in 24 years they failed to play in the post-season which remarkably was only 2 short years since they were the last Canadian-based team to win the Stanley Cup (bet you haven't heard that before).

Already gone from that Stanley Cup winning team was this mighty crush of nolstagia; Captain Guy Carbonneau, Kevin Haller, Stephan Lebeau and Denis Savard. They were soon followed by Eric Desjardins, Gilbert Dionne, John LeClair, Mathieu Schneider and the guy picked to follow Carboneau as Captain, Kirk Muller. Jacques Demers was no longer with the club, as was long-time Habitant, GM Serge Savard. 

So already, the Habs had traded away 2 of their captains and removed most of the old guard.  

At the start of the year, Mike Keane was named Captain and subsequently started a bit of a scandal when he declared he had no intention of learning how to speak french for the french reporters. So confident were they in Patrick Roy they no longer retained Red Light Racicot as the back up goaltender but instead a kid with the great Chicago Bear name of 'Pat Jablonski'.  

General Manager Serge Savard and Coach Jacques Demers were fired by club President Ronald Corey.

Rejean Houle becomes the new General Manager and Mario Tremblay is hired as coach. Tremblay is a rookie NHL coach and was for a time Patrick Roy's roommate in Roy's rookie year. Tremblay played his entire career with the Habs and has five Stanley Cups to his credit, thanks in large part to Scotty Bowman.

Roy and the Habs were doing well under the new coaching change; going 12, 2 and 1.

Then the shit happened.

The Russian Line of Dominance, Federov/Larionov/Kozlov combined for 13 points together.

Rumor was that Tremblay was trying to break up the 'back of the bus' syndrome that was affecting the team. Those left from the championship team of 1992-93 were it's own clique and he felt that they were above the law, which in fact was part of the reason why Demers and Savard were fired.

Vinnie Damphousse was named Captain of the Canadiens the following year, which is perhaps why Roy chose to single him out in the interview. I don't know, he was part of that championship team so I'm guessing they don't keep in touch. He is currently a hockey analyst on french television.

On April 14, 2011, Damphousse was charged by Montreal police with six counts of assaulting his spouse after allegations made by his wife.^[3] The incidents were alleged to have occurred between January 2008 and early 2011. Damphousse categorically denied the allegations brought against him and also filed a complaint against his wife for assault.^[4] On June 19, 2013, the Crown dropped all charges against the ex-hockey player. The withdrawal of the charges meant an acquittal for Damphousse, though the Crown announced intentions to pursue its case against Allana Henderson, now Damphousse's ex-wife, for armed assault and theft under $5,000. Henderson is accused of committing assault with her vehicle and stealing a briefcase from her ex-husband. Her trial is scheduled for January 2015

As a head coach for Montreal, Tremblay coached 159 games, with 71 wins, 63 losses and 25 ties across two years with the team. Prior to his 2009–10 hiring as assistant-coach of the New Jersey Devils, Tremblay served as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Wild. In both jobs, he was an assistant coach to Jacques Lemaire. After Lemaire retired in 2010, Tremblay was not retained as assistant coach. He then joined the Quebec sport network RDS as a hockey analyst for the Montreal Canadiens games


Patrick Roy let in 5 goals on 17 shots in the first period, that's like Roberto Luongo in Stanley Cup clinching games average.
He let in a further 4 goals by about the 10 minute mark in the second.