Rookie Joshua Roy got one for the team on Sunday when he was the only Montreal Canadiens player to willingly participate in the Michigan event during the skills competition. It was Cole Caufield who gave him his place as a joke.
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“There were people who said they weren't capable, they weren't in a hurry,” admitted Roy, who was downright bad at the event in front of the thousands of fans at the Bell Center. You asked Cole [Caufield]but Cole turned on me and said I was getting better… I had no say, I was the one who left.
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“I'm not the best person for it and I knew it, but I didn't really have the choice to do it, it ended up like that,” noted the 20-year-old striker from Beauceron. It’s for fun, so it’s not more serious.”
Let's assume that Roy's poor performance left the “Michigan” event leaving fans wanting more.
“I don’t think there were many players who wanted to do it,” Roy said. So I was lucky.”
“I was embarrassed,” he admitted. There was a lot of silence and I just couldn’t get the puck up.”
“Michigan Sarah” was there
Luckily, the crowd was able to enjoy the skills of New Brunswicker Sarah Bujold, a member of the Montreal team of the Professional Women's Hockey League.
“She needs to give me some things,” Roy said.
Because of her skills, former player Paul Byron, who hosted her for a day at the Bell Center, gave her the nickname “Michigan Sarah.”
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“I don’t know if it will stay that way, we’ll see,” Bujold replied with a laugh.
“I just saw videos of players doing that [Trevor] “Zegras and I tried it out a little bit every day in training,” she explained. I still need to practice a bit before I can use it in a game.”
Female ice hockey players in the spotlight
To save Beauce's honor, Marie-Philip Poulin also did well in the exam.
“Being here to represent Montreal and the Professional Women's Hockey League is exciting and we feel the love from the fans,” said Poulin about the invitation to the LPHF hockey players. The fans are thrilled when we are there, it's the same at every one of our games, whether at the Auditorium de Verdun or at Place Bell [à Laval].”
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The next step would undoubtedly be to present an LPHF game at the Bell Centre. On this subject, Marie-Christine Boucher, head of commercial operations of the Montreal team, assures that the contract has not yet been signed.