Patrick Roy has been in our lives for a long time. This applies to the young journalist FX Bénard, who yesterday morning was surprised to discover that Casseau had won the Calder Cup in 1985 in Sherbrooke and the Stanley Cup in 1986 with the Canadiens: “Wow! Two in a row! FX exclaimed there… is 25 years old.
To FX and all the guys and gals of his generation, Patrick Roy is the formidable coach and general manager of the Quebec Remparts. It’s also a jersey, number 33, that hangs from the ceiling of the Bell Center and the vague memory that he won the title of coach of the year with the Colorado Avalanche.
Before he fired Joe Sakic and the owners of the Avalanche when he no longer felt respected by the organization. Pure Casseau.
JEAN-CHARLES AMENDMENTS END
For a 50-year-old man like Jean-Charles Lajoie, the king of TVA Sports and the BPM network, Patrick Roy goes back even further in his memory: “I was very young and when I had the chance to participate in the games, Granby Bisons of the QMJHL, I was fascinated by this weakening in front of the goal. So much so that I switched ends of the rink when Patrick switched sides for periods. I wanted to be close and not miss anything,” he confided yesterday morning.
It is in addition, says JiCi, one of my colleagues, Bijou Rinfret, who had nicknamed him Casseau when he described the fights between the Canadian Voyageurs of Sherbrooke. Patrick spent several games on the bridge eating boxes of French fries despite his frightening thinness.
This thinness made headlines when Casseau took off his jersey on one of the Canadiens’ floats in the 1986 Stanley Cup parade.
Casseau therefore entered my life during this season, which ended with a parade, rue Sainte-Catherine.
It wasn’t planned. Neither Serge Savard nor his consultant Jacques Lemaire were convinced that Patrick Roy had his place as the great Canadian’s number one goalkeeper. It was Jean Perron who had fought to impose it.
CELEBRATION DINNER
No way to forget for Jean Perron. He and Patrick Roy share the same birthday. October 5: “The day before the game in Pittsburgh, the first of the year, I had decided to send Patrick in front of the goal when Steve Penney had been injured during training camp. And Serge Savard had invited us to dinner in Pittsburgh, Patrick and I, to mark our anniversary. Casseau began his career on opening night against Mario Lemieux and the Penguins. We had won 5-3 and Mario had scored at least one goal,” said Jean Perron from his adopted Gaspésie.
In fact, I remember that at that time Serge Savard was far from determined to keep three goalkeepers at the big club. Steve Penney was the Jacques Lemaire favorite and Doug Soetaert was a solid veteran. But Patrick Roy was so talented that Perron had convinced Savard that he would offer thirty games to his rookie and that he strongly recommended the employment of François Allaire to supervise him and help him in his progress.
Jean Perron was wearing fortrel pants, but he made several good shots for the Canadian. Including winning a Stanley Cup… with Casseau in front of the net.
FLAGELLING
Patrick turned fans’ lives upside down when he stood up to Mario Tremblay and told Ronald Corey that he had just played his last game in Montreal.
He stood tall when Mario Tremblay humiliated him in front of all of Canada on Saturday night by forcing him to stay in goal against Scotty Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings. The Wings smashed Flannel shamelessly.
Even FX saw this footage of Patrick wanting to share his thoughts on Ronald Corey.
On Monday, Casseau beat himself up in a press conference at the Sheraton in Laval. Daniel Lamarre, president of National at the time, had organized the press conference for Corey and Réjean Houle at the Forum and Paul Wilson, a young employee at the same National, the press conference for Patrick in Laval.
Who was National’s major customer of interest? Perfect, you got it all. So much so that after the press conference and after interviewing him during a 7 o’clock special on TVA, I had advised Casseau to stop flaunting himself. That he had done well to send them packing.
A few months later, after playing in all 22 playoff games for the Colorado Avalanche and shutting out the Panthers in the finals, Patrick Roy won the Stanley Cup. 1-0 in the third overtime. After saying in the dressing room before the start of overtime: “Don’t put pressure on yourselves guys, at least there’s never a puck that’s going to pass”.
The next afternoon, I think it was a Tuesday, the phone rang. It was Patrick Roy: “Shrimp, it’s Patrick. I just wanted to say thanks for the advice you gave me. To stop whipping me. You were right,” he told me. In summary, when we also talked about this breathtaking conquest with the avalanche.
It’s Patrick Roy. He doesn’t forget much. Even when writing The Mask, a TV series about a goalkeeper who has problems at home…
I now hope that Patrick Roy will stay in FX Bénard’s life for a long time by being the head coach of a National League team.
The next generation needs leaders like him…
