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Images are everything Roy memories may prove more lasting than his recordsPosted: Wednesday May 28, 2003 2:09 PM
Hockey in late-spring wouldn't be complete without Patrick Roy somehow tantalizing us. This time he is standing up to say he's stepping down, ending, at age 37, a fabulously entertaining, 18-season, four-Cup romp through the NHL that reorganized the record books from the top. Here's an offseason project for the NHL: Create the Patrick Roy Award. Then give it each spring to the postseason's best goalie -- which is exactly what Roy has been throughout his career. Roy is here in late May, on this page and in our thoughts, not only because of his abrupt adieu, but also because we're watching two of his emulators in the Stanley Cup finals: New Jersey's Hall of Fame-bound Martin Brodeur and Anaheim's young, intractable Jean-Sebastien Giguere, both fellow Quebecois whom Roy inspired. Anyone who's been watching hockey the past 15 years knows that neither Brodeur nor Giguere would now be butterflying down so gracefully had Roy not shown the way. He imposed his style on the game, and legions of us were grateful. It's not just that his method is effective, that the quick drop-n-slide of a pad can stone the wickedest wrist shot. Roy's way is also fun, dramatic, marvelous, at times even beautiful. Far beyond the statistics, Roy has entertained us and thrilled us while he emerged so dazzlingly as the best. You remember the 2001 finals and its delicious subplot. Brodeur, then 29, and the Devils, faced Roy, then 35, and the Avalanche. Throughout the series, Brodeur talked about how he had idolized Roy as a boy growing up in Montreal; how Roy was "larger than life" and how young Marty had a poster of Roy on his wall. Roy was not softened. "It depends what you mean by 'friends,'" he said when asked about his relationship with Brodeur. "I'm not calling him up to see how he's doing."
You can see him, in the 1993 finals, stoning Kings winger Luc Robitaille, and then, with the puck secure, looking up at Los Angeles tough guy Tomas Sandstrom and winking. You can see him, center ice, smacking the bejeezus out of Chris Osgood. You can see him rising up from the bench in Montreal and striding over to peer at Canadiens president Ronald Corey in the stands and tell him "This is my last game for Montreal." You remember him gamboling from the net and making gaffes and never, ever seeming rattled. You remember Game 4 of that 2001 finals when Roy mishandled the puck and let Scott Gomez score into an open net. And how everyone said, when Jersey went up 3-2 in the series, that it was Roy's misplay that soured the series for Colorado. You remember Roy replying, "What play?" when he was pestered about it, and you remember him coming back to shut out the Devils in Game 6, to anchor a 3-1 win in Game 7 and to skate off with Cup No. 4 You remember the Montreal Forum during the years when it was known as St. Patrick's Cathedral, and you remember people calling Denver's Pepsi Center the very same thing. The cathedral was, in effect, every goalmouth where Patrick Roy went to work. You remember thinking years ago that perhaps Roy was near the end -- when the Canadiens traded him to Colorado. After that one-series-and-out postseason in 1998. When he wigged out a few years back because young Avalanche backup goalie Marc Denis got a rare start and you thought, "maybe Roy feels vulnerable." You remember just a few weeks ago, when Minnesota's Andrew Brunette shoveled the series winner past Roy in what, we now know, was the last NHL goal Roy would yield. These revels now are ended and hockey springtimes won't ever be the same. The statistics are Roy's to keep. We thank him not for the numbers but for the everlasting images. And we know that next year, come late May, we'll be missing something. Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides each week at SI.com.
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