Patrick Roy was in net for Les Habitants. By the time the night ended, he would declare to never play another minute for the Canadiens as their goaltender. You can partially blame the Red Wings for that, with an assist from Montreal coach Mario Tremblay.
The Red Wings, a scoring machine forever it seems, were that way back in '95-96, too. It was one of the reasons why they finished with a 62-13-7 record, with a lineup featuring the Russian Five: Sergei Fedorov; Igor Larionov; Slava Kozlov; Slava Fetisov; and Vladimir Konstantinov. So when the puck started going in behind Roy that December night, the Red Wings smelled blood, as red as their road sweaters they wore in the Forum.
The Wings kept swarming. And they kept shooting. And the puck kept finding the twine. Roy's neck was becoming sunburned from the goal light turning on behind him.
The Wings were pouring it on, the Canadiens seemed helpless to stop them, and Patrick Roy was Swiss cheese. On any other night in the NHL, a coach would have pulled his peppered netminder -- especially a sure-fire Hall of Famer such as Roy. But Mario Tremblay did not pull Patrick Roy. He left him in the game, even when it appeared that the Red Wings were on the verge of humiliating his start netminder.
And that, as it turned out, was quite possibly what Tremblay was trying to do to Patty Roy: humiliate him.
Roy and Tremblay had been clashing for weeks prior to the Red Wings game. There were some spats. So when the Red Wings began pouring it on, and with no hope of catching them on the scoreboard, Tremblay thought he had an opportunity to finally show Patrick Roy who was the boss.
It backfired on him -- big time.
With the score way out of hand -- the Red Wings won 11-1 -- Roy had made a routine save and, as the Forum crowd gave him the sarcastic Bronx cheer, Roy thrust his arms into the air -- a far more sarcastic move than any derisive cheer.
Tremblay pulled Roy at the next whistle.
Then, HNIC viewing audiences were treated to one of the all-time greatest stare-downs in sports history. First, Roy skated off the ice, refusing to make eye contact with his coach. Then, after having second thoughts, Roy returned to the gate area and said a few words into the ear of the Canadiens' head honcho, who was sitting just behind the Montreal bench.
The words were, "I have just played my last game as a Canadien."
Through it all, Tremblay's eyes never strayed from Roy. After Roy spoke his words, and returned to his location on the bench, Tremblay's eyes threatened to bore holes into the goalie's skull.
The fallout from that debacle was earth-shattering.
Roy was right: He was done as a Canadien. He was traded days later.
His new team was the Colorado Avalanche.
And when the Red Wings, so fantabulous in the regular season, met Colorado in the Conference Finals and were getting their lunch handed to them, they would look into the Avalanche net and see Patrick Roy frustrating them -- even taunting them verbally after the Red Wings won Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena.
"I would say it's about time they won a home game," Roy said with a sadistic sneer. The Avs had won Games 1 and 2 in Detroit, and even after the Game 5 loss held a 3-2 advantage in the series -- a series they would clinch on their home ice in Game 6.
The Wings -- and Mario Tremblay -- are to blame for this
The Red Wings set that glittering regular season wins record, then struggled in the playoffs, going 10-9. They needed Steve Yzerman's double overtime goal in Game 7 to get past the St. Louis Blues in the conference semis. The Red Wings trailed that series, too, 3-2 before rallying.
The Red Wings may have had their fun on December 2, 1995 with their 11-1 romp on Montreal Forum ice. But Patrick Roy had the last laugh.
Until 1997, of course.
4 comments:
There's something fascinating to me about the Wings killing one franchise and giving birth to another.
It sounds like this would've happened against another team, if not the Wings. But what if the Wings hadn't laid it on Roy that night, and he hadn't gone to Colorado? Would they have won any more Stanley Cups?
The Wings had trouble throughout that entire playoff -- even the first round against Winnipeg.
It just wasn't meant to be for them in '96. Their goaltending kind of failed them, too.
I think it's more fascinating to think you can go 62-13 in the regular season and only 10-9 in the playoffs. Think about it: they lost almost as many games in the playoffs, in a month, as they did in six months during the regular season.
Thinking back on how fun it was to watch the Wings - Nordilanche rivalry develop, maybe I'm developing a soft spot for Pattty Roy.
Nope...Still can't stand the cocky SOB!
But it is interesting to ponder the what might have beens if that 10-0 embarassment doesn't happen. Would Roy remained a Hab? Would he ened up somewhere else? Would the Habs been a dominant team if they had kept hockey's best net minder? What of the 'lanche?
Sports are full of questions like those...
Yes, sports are full of such questions!
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