Patrick Roy’s aggressive tactics against the Minnesota Wild are part of the reason his young team has rallied behind him this season.
Roy pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov with three minutes left to play in Game 1 and that led to the Avs scoring the tying goal in the closing seconds before winning Game 1 5-4 in overtime.
As Jamie McGinn told Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun, it’s that kind of outside-the-box stuff that makes the team love him.
“All people see are the antics behind the bench, but we see what kind of guy he is, how he’s always supporting us, how he’s never negative,” McGinn said. “We want to play for a guy like that. It shows in how hard and consistent we’ve been all year. We want to make him proud and we want to make the guys in the room proud, too.”
Sounds like Roy is the ideal kind of father-figure to play for. After all, Roy put many years coaching in the QMJHL with the Quebec Remparts and being that sort of supportive coach is needed at that level.
Add in the fact Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog said he “loved” that they pulled the goalie with as much time left as they did and you’ve got a team that will go all out for you.
Who knew that being an aggressively supportive guy would work in the NHL? Apparently Joe Sakic did when he brought him to Denver.