Patrick Roy is giving the New York Islanders visibility they had long since lost. Earlier this week, Chantal Machabée contacted her colleagues in the New York organization to offer them the availability of the interview room at the Bell Center on the sidelines of Roy's visit to Montreal tomorrow. The invitation surprised members of the Islanders' public relations department.
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“Oops, why?” They asked.
Chantal explained to them that Patrick Roy is big in Montreal!
The Islanders finally informed him on Wednesday that they would not be holding a morning skate on Thursday and that Roy would meet with the media in said room at 4:15 p.m. It was predictable. Roy wanted to avoid his team's dressing room being flooded by a sea of journalists in the morning.
At his first game as coach of the Ialanders last Sunday against the Dallas Stars, around 20 journalists were on site. They'll say it's not a lot, but it's a lot for this team these days. In recent years she has hardly been followed at home. And we didn't see any New York media members at the Islanders games in Montreal.
Six reporters from Quebec traveled to Elmont, a community on Long Island, for Roy's debut with the Islanders. The Journal de Montréal, Journal de Québec and TVA Sports platforms have exploded!
The last of the CH greats
Roy played his last game in the National Hockey League more than 20 years ago. His brilliant career made him a legend and the last great in Canadian history. Last summer he gave his fellow citizens of the old capital their first Memorial Cup victory since 2006.
He too has his legion of detractors, but he remains true to himself and his beliefs. He leaves no one indifferent.
We can expect the people to give him a warm ovation tomorrow evening.
The roof could rise!
The good years of Bossy
It will be a change from what we've seen during the Islanders' decades-long visits to Montreal.
In the 1980s, her visits to the Forum and Colisée were among the highlights of the Montreal and Quebec hockey seasons. The fans raved about the goalscoring machine Mike Bossy, a local who had also caused a stir across the province in the junior ranks.
The Islanders were a great team. In addition to Bossy, they had four other future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Billy Smith, who delivered ax blows to opponents who dared to get in front of his net.
French-Ontarian coach Al Arbor, who, like the Canadiens' legendary Toe Blake, grew up in the mining region of Sudbury, enjoyed speaking French to journalists from Quebec. Because he couldn't remember all of our names, he nicknamed us Gonzagas.
“We French Canadians all have or know someone in our family named Gonzague,” he said.
He really was a nice guy, this Alger.
His wife wanted nothing to do with New York when Islanders general manager Bill Torrey offered him the coaching job. She and her husband agreed when Torrey, a Montreal native who grew up a few blocks from the Forum during World War II, told them that the Islanders were stationed on the outskirts of Manhattan.
Both men also have their place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
These famous editions of the Islanders were the only ones, aside from those of the Canadiens in the second half of the 1950s and 1970s, to win four consecutive Stanley Cups. In 1984 they appeared in the finals for the fifth consecutive year, but the Habs' record of five consecutive wins remained.
The Edmonton Oilers began their dominance by ending that of the Islanders, winning five championships in seven years.
From the lineage of the Rocket and flower
From then on, the Islanders were an ordinary NHL team, sometimes downright bad.
Right now, no one sees them going for the Stanley Cup…except maybe Roy, who is aiming for the top everywhere he goes. Since arriving on Long Island, he has been the same as ever.
His new players discover an emotional and active coach who will set them right when he feels it is necessary, but who will also multiply the encouragement.
The 58-year-old is made of one piece. He is to blame for his qualities; he is whole. In this respect he is made according to the same scheme as Maurice Richard and Guy Lafleur.
We like that in Quebec.
With him there were and never will be any gray areas.