33 Things You Might Not Know About Patrick Roy

Aside from holding numerous goaltending records and counting for some momumental achievements in hockey, Patrick Roy's career has had it's share of interesting moments away from the limelight. Here are 33 lesser known facts and trivial details about Roy's career in hockey.

1 - Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy not only faced each other in junior, they were in fact born on the same day - October 5, 1965.

2 - Roy's father Michel, and his mother Barbara, were both athletes in their youth. The father toiled some in hockey, but was mainly involved with tennis. His mother was an Olympic swimming hopeful, named after Barbara Ann Scott. Patrick's brother Stephane had a brief NHL career with the Minnesota North Stars.

3 - Patrick's first strides on the ice came on former Canadiens player Leo Bourgeault's (1932-35) backyard rink in Ste Foy.

4 - Daniel Bouchard of the Nordiques and Rogatien Vachon of the Kings were Roy's first goalie idols as a young boy. In the first NHL game his father brought him to, he got to watch Rogie in action against the Canadiens. Bouchard later gave him a stick, that Patrick was known to sleep with for luck, and a hockey card that he always kept carefully placed in his locker. Roy couldn't resist the temptation, and the stick was used in games as a 16 year old with St. Foy.

5 - At age 9, Roy and two Atom team mates were asked to participate in a shootout in front of fans at the Collisee in Quebec. The Nordiques were hosting the Chicago Cougars, whose assistant coach was Jacques Demers. Roy stopped 4 of 6 shots he faced.

6 - At the 1976 Quebec International Pee Wee tournament, Roy helped his team go three rounds deep despite the loss of their leading goal scorer. During the tournament, Roy had his photo taken with a 12 year old Brett Hull.

7 - When he was fourteen, his father gave him a set of 1951-52 Parkhurst hockey cards, and it set him on the road to becoming an avid collector. He still owns the Parkie set featuring the Beliveau and Rocket Richard rookie cards, and his collection has grown to include over a 100,000 individual pieces.

8 - At 16, while playing for the Midget AAA St. Foy Gouverneurs, Roy brought his team to the league title and the the final game of the Air Canada Cup in Victoria. Along the playoff route, he was suspended three games for shoving an official after a disputed goal involving a gloved pass. Roy returned to lead his club to the Canadian midget finals, only to be undone by Burnaby's Cliff Ronning.

9 - Roy's father Michel claims that his son has a photographic memory. During the hearing for the suspension mentioned above, Roy retold exactly where everyone stood and where the puck lie during the incident. He not only was able to name each person and what they were doing, he was able to account for what each person was able to see. His perception of detail also extends to statistical data, such as player stats and hockey card trivia.

10 - There's something to be said for a good goalie on a bad team progressing quicker than a goalie on a good team. All during Roy's development, straight through to Granby in the QMJHL, Patrick played mainly on clubs where he was peppered with shots.

11 - The Canadiens scouts noticed Roy on a trip to Granby to have a look at Stephane Richer. During the game, Granby were killing off a 5 on 3, when three players broke in alone on Roy. After stopping the first two, Roy threw the puck at the third player, gesturing him to give it his best shot. That summer, Montreal drafted both Roy and Richer.

12 - The Canadiens drafted Roy with the third round pick received from trading defenseman Robert Picard to Winnipeg in 1983. Curiously, the Habs had acquired Picard from the Toronto Maple Leafs for goalie Michel "Bunny" Larocque.

















13 - In his initial training camp with Montreal in 1984, he was given the number 32. The following season, Roy asked for number 33, but was again handed 32. When Montreal decided to leave Richard Sevigny unsigned, Patrick finally got his wish.

14 - Roy got his chance with the Sherbrooke Canadiens following the end of his regular season in Granby when the baby Habs backup goalie Paul Pageau asked to leave the club to attend his wife's pregnancy. When Sherbrooke's starter Rick Moffat went down to injury, coach Pierre Creamer gave the net to Roy, who had played inonly one regular season game. Roy won the first playoff start, and the rest is history.

15 - Throughout his junior career in Granby, Patrick never won a individual award or placed on an All Star team. Contrary to popular belief, he did not win the most valuable player award with the Sherbrooke Canadiens in their 1985 Calder Cup win. That merit went to Brian Skrudland. The first major individual award earned by Roy was the 1986 Conn Smythe trophy. Not a bad place to start!

16 - Roy appeared in his first NHL game on March 1, 1985 against Winnipeg, and he had current Canadiens coach Guy Carbooneau to thank for it. Patrick was called up in late February from Granby to replace starter Steve Penney, who suffered an injured groin on a shot by Carbonneau. Backup Doug Soetaert was replaced after two periods and Roy made his debut, stopping the only two shots he faced to earn the win.

17 - Upon signing his first contract with the Canadiens, Roy did like most players and went out and purchased his first brand new car. Strolling cockily into a Honda dealership, Patrick spotted the car he wanted and announced to the salesman that he was ready to buy it. The salesman, not recognizing him from Adam, tried to shrug Roy off as just some cocky kid, telling him he couldn't afford the payments. When Roy proclaimed he was prepared to pay cash for expensive (at the time) Prelude, the salesman got serious. The deal was done so hastily by the anxious pair, that Roy's new Honda ran out of gas at the bottom of the first hill he met.

18 - The "Casseau" nickname came from Roy's constant diet of french fries when he made the club in 1985. "Casseau" is the french word for the box holding the chips that seemed to constantly accompany Patrick's meal. Team dieticians and conditioning experts made certain the habit was not long lasting. A Conn Smythe trophy win rebaptized him Saint Patrick for good.

19 - Roy's first NHL start came on October 10, 1985 in Pittsburgh on opening night of the season. He was given the start over vets Soeteart and Penney, and made 23 saves for his second career win.

20 - One his way to winning the Stanley Cup and becoming the youngest ever winner of the Conn Smythe trophy in 1986, fans and media became fascinated with Roy's ritual of superstitions. Beyond holding conversations with his goalpsosts, Roy never skated accross the blue or red line, wrote the names of his children on his stick, kept all the pucks from his shutouts in his locker until seasons end, and used or wore the same equipement for game's on end during winning streaks. By his second Cup and Smythe in 1993, Roy had shed practically all of his eccentricacies.

21 - Patrick's impersonation of axe wielding Ron Hextall cost him eight games during the 1987-88 campaign. In a game on October 19, Roy became annoyed at constantly being bumped and shoved by the North Stars Warren Babe. He then took it upon himself to deliver a two handed paddle whack to Babe's ankle during a scuffle between the Habs John Kordic and Richard Zemlack of Minnesota. When Roy returned to action on November 14, he did it with panache, shuting out the Blackhawks 3-0.

22 - It has often been an opinion that Brian Hayward was the best goaltending partner Roy ever had. Behind the scenes, the pair shared an uncomfortable coexistance. Room mates on the road, Roy often felt that Hayward was trying to sabbotage his starts by partying long and loud the night before.

23 - From the 1988 season until October 16, 1989, Roy had a 35 game unbeaten streak on Forum ice. Dale Hunter of the Nordiques ended the run with overtime goal on that date.

24 - Coach Pat Burns once fined Roy for sleeping in and missing a practice in 1989. The goalie blamed his infant son Jonathan for knocking a phone off the hook that was to bring his wake up call.

25 - Roy suffered few injuries during his career, but he was unfortunate in the early 1990's. In December of that year, the Maple Leafs' Wendel Clark shoved a tumbling Petr Svoboda over Roy, causing him to sprain a medial collateral ligament in his leg. He returned three weeks later to shut out Calgary in his first game back. The following season, he tore ligaments in his left ankle when he ventured out to play a stray puck and became sandwiched in a Graeme Townsend - Donald Dufresne collision. He'd miss part of the 1991-92 season, when the injury was reaggrivated.

26 - When Roy won his second Cup with Montreal in 1993, he and the club set an NHL record that will be near impossible to match by winning 10 consecutive overtime games. In the process the team tied the record for most wins in a row with 11, while Roy became only the second player to earn two Conn Smythe trophies.

27 - Roy played the entire 1993 playoffs with an illegal width goalie stick. (Just kidding!)

28 - After Game 2 of the 1994 playoffs, Roy suffered an emergency appendectamy that caused him to miss game three of the first round against the Bruins. Returning victorious for a game 4 win, an exhuberant hospital attendant claimed to have the actual removed appendix from Roy, and attempted to auction it off.

29 - With relations between Roy, certain team mates, and management sourring in the fall of 1995, general manager Serge Savard had a deal on the table to send him to Colorado when the season began. Savard hesitated to make the move, hoping things would smooth over, but was fired shortly thereafter. The trade would have brought goalie Stephane Fiset and forwards Owen Nolan and Adam Deadmarsh to Montreal.

30 - When Mario Tremblay was first announced as the Canadiens coach replacing Jacques Demers, it caught Patrick offguard and in an uncomfortable way. Someone in the Montreal media mentioned Roy laughing, and it didn't help appease what would turn into a volcanic relationship not long after. Roy explained his giggles by proclaiming that since Tremblay was a former team mate, his signing made him feel old. Tremblay's first words to Patrick were, "You stop the pucks, I'll coach!"

31 - Not long after becoming a member of the Avalanche, Roy represented the club in the 1996 All Star game. Joel Quenneville, then an assistant with Colorado, joined in on a card game with Roy, Ray Bourque and others on a plane trip to the game. In the middle of playing hands, Roy told Quenneville, ''You know Joel, we're going to win the Cup this year.'' The coach, unsure of what he's just heard, says "What?", to which Roy repeats himself, without adding a word of explanation. The Avalanche won the Cup five months later.

32- After Patrick had played in his 1000th career game, the Avalanche celebrated the event by gifting Roy with several tokens of appreciation. The NHL kicked in with the now standard silver stick, but it was the presenter who Roy appreciated the most. Along with his Cup wins, Roy always mentions that meeting Rogie Vachon on this special night would long hold a place in his heart.

33 - Roy had many off ice indiscretions by the time he retired, few of them helping his public image. Lesser known was his kindness away from the lights, bringing kids onto the ice after practices to take shots on him. One particular time, Roy played along with a youngster, letting him score on every rush the whole time he was out there with the legend.





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