The passion and the will to win, every night. In the eyes of the dozen former players, assistants and close collaborators to whom The newspaper talked about in the last few days, it’s what defined Patrick Roy, the goaltender with four Stanley Cups, but also Patrick Roy, the head coach. The one now trying to add another Memorial Cup to his prestigious record in what was to be his “last dance” behind the Remparts bench.
“I think he really made us want to win. In fact, he taught us to hate losing. What he basically wanted was to see us work as hard as possible,” said ex-striker Angelo Esposito, who took the top honor in Canadian junior hockey in Roy’s first year as coach.
Esposito was in his first year in the red uniform of the Remparts when Patrick Roy took over the helm of the team in 2005. The club, of which he was then co-owner and general manager, did not stop, winning only one of their first five meetings.
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Page 84 of the Journal de Québec of December 23, 1996, the day after the takeover of Harfangs de Beauport by Patrick Roy, Jacques Tanguay and Michel Cadrin, which would in turn become Remparts.
Roy, the man who made his hours
But by then, even though he had only been retired from professional hockey for two years, Roy had already learned his skills, Bob Hartley recalls.
Before taking the job with the Remparts, the former goalkeeper coached the Beaubourg Bantam AA team (Beauport and Charlesbourg) with his friend and later assistant, Claude Lefebvre.
But “he didn’t need to go and train at this level,” said Hartley, who coached Roy in Colorado.
“He could have gone straight to the NHL and achieved great things,” he believes. But it shows his passion, his desire to always be the best.”
The eternal number 33 directs the ship to crash, and the same year the team wins its first Memorial Cup since 1971.
Archive photo
Patrick Roy complains to the referee after striker Angelo Esposito received a penalty.
An amazing feat of arms, as this ring is considered one of the most difficult to put on the finger, given the long journey that leads to the ultimate victory.
But this is nothing surprising in the eyes of those who have known him closely. “He always had the right words to motivate us. He always knew how to get that little flame into us,” explains former defender Mikaël Tam, who joined Remparts in 2007 and was coached by Patrick for five years.
Roy, the coach who asks for advice
Roy also has this desire to constantly improve. Because both Tam and assistants Martin Laperrière (2005 to 2020) and Lefebvre (2006 to 2011) describe Roy as a coach “who consults many of those around him”.
“We also often called coaches from the National League to get their opinion. Sometimes it’s good to think outside the box”, mentions Laperrière.
A far cry, therefore, from the image of the man who wants to control everything that Patrick Roy is sometimes depicted by.
Roy, the “tough but fair” man
If there is a cliché about the 57-year-old man, which has been proven, it is, according to those interviewed, the “demanding” coach.
“Hard”, even. But also fair, emphasize Tam and Marc-Édouard Vlasic, the Sharks defenseman, who is Roy’s most productive “foal” in the NHL to date. “There are times when I’ve bumped into it. He challenged me,” Tam points out.
“At that time, he was extremely tough,” said Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault, who played for the former goaltender from 2007 to 2011. […] He was such a tough coach that I think he brought out the best in most players.”
Some of his former protégés also point out that such pressure was not made for everyone.
“I had teammates who didn’t like him, but the ones who were there for the right reasons, who wanted to win, they liked him,” Tam said. Because Pat, if you gave it to him, if you applied what he asked for, you would become one of his trusted men.
“He was a strict guy who coached with passion and he just wanted the best for his players. He was sometimes hard on me, but often very good,” adds Anthony Duclair, now one of the Panthers forwards.
Roy, the “visionary” and “working” coach
Roy also did “everything to help his players,” points out Esposito, who at the time was living with the pressure of being one of the brightest prospects in junior hockey.
“Reparts was one of the first teams to hire a coach responsible for physical conditioning. And if we needed a psychologist, if a player had problems off the ice, the team and him did everything, so we knew everything on the subject,” he praises.
If Tam describes him as “an excellent strategist”, he also remembers a coach who did not count his hours.
“He is in the office at 6:50 or 7 in the morning and he does not sit down to read the news, confirms Benoît Desrosiers, his assistant since he returned to Quebec in 2018. He watches videos non-stop. He’s a guy who wants to try 122 cases.”
“Sometimes I have to calm him down a bit,” he continues. He wants everything to be perfect. The word passion is not even strong enough.
Roy, the coach who adapted
But if Patrick Roy remained as passionate between his first and second stints behind the Remparts bench, which was notably marked by a three-year stint with the Avalanche, he has also changed a lot over the years, according to his acolytes and former players.
Archive photo
Patrick Roy during Rempart’s training in 2019.
Once or twice a year Marchessault trains with the Remparts. He discovered a trainer who was always demanding but more attentive to what set each of his protégés apart.
“He understands the situations, he knows who to press more than others, and that is his strength now. That is also why [les Remparts] has been so successful in recent years,” he says.
Photo Didier Desbusschere
Patrick Roy lifts the Gilles-Courteau trophy, awarded to the QMJHL champions, following the Remparts’ win in Moncton last Sunday.
Tam saw the same when he served as an “assistant” for three months at Remparts in 2020. He saw a coach who adapted well to the new generation, which he considers different from his.
“I saw that Pat had changed his approach. It also shows how he is not a stubborn guy for whom my way is the highway.»
“If he ever retires, he will have had an incredible career,” he smiles. He was the one who led the Remparts to where they are now, with Jacques Tanguay and all the others. He won the Memorial Cup once, but with what’s going on right now, I wouldn’t really be surprised if he lifted it a second time.”
“And I want him.”
– In collaboration with Stéphane Cadorette, Kevin Dubé and Mylène Richard
