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Sharks’ Vlasic: Patrick Roy ‘coaches like he played’

Nashville Predators v Colorado Avalanche

at Pepsi Center on October 4, 2013 in Denver, Colorado.

Doug Pensinger

Patrick Roy is one intense coach. We’ve seen it this year, in his rookie campaign as a National Hockey League bench boss.

One San Jose Sharks player - defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic - got a first-hand experience with Roy as his coach, during their days together with the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL.

“He coaches like he played ... He’s intense,” Vlasic told the San Jose Mercury News.

“If you work, he’ll reward you ... He doesn’t like laziness. I saw it for three years. If you worked hard and were there every day, he would reward you with ice time, power play, things like that. Days off.”

The Sharks host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.

Roy’s presence as a world class, Hall-of-Fame goalie was felt most nights during the hockey season when he was playing for the Montreal Canadiens and then the Colorado Avalanche.

As a coach, well, he thrust himself onto the scene in Colorado’s first game of the season, and his first behind the bench for an NHL team.

He got into a verbal altercation with Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau at the end of the game, shoving the glass in spectacular fashion. That move cost him a cool $10,000 as the result of a fine.

But with Roy behind the bench, the Avalanche, after finishing dead last in the Western Conference in the 2013 lockout-shortened season, are third in the Central Division with a 23-10-2 record, and eight points back of the first-place Chicago Blackhawks.

Follow @CamTucker_Metro