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Patrick Roy is the cool coach of the NHL

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James OBrien

Via NHL.com, here’s Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog saying a bunch of nice stuff about his coach, Patrick Roy:

“Usually players are used to coaches being a little distant and you almost have to tip-toe around them a little bit. With Patrick, it’s the other way around. He comes in and hangs out in the players’ lounge, chit-chats with us, shoots the [breeze], all that kind of stuff. That is something that makes us very comfortable and you earn that respect from the coach and you realize he’s a regular guy despite all the Conn Smythes and the Cup rings and all of that.”

Roy is among the leading candidates, if not the favorite, to win coach of the year this season. The Hall of Fame ex-goalie, in his first season behind Colorado’s bench, has the Avs in a neck-and-neck race with the defending champion Blackhawks for second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Avs are in Montreal to play Roy’s old team, the Canadiens, tonight.

And yes, his return is a pretty big story in that city:

Related: Nobody on the Avs is ‘talking about going to Vegas’