Patrick Roy took a moment to survey the rafters at Ball Arena after stepping onto the ice as an opposing coach for the first time Monday morning.
Roy saw the banners that he played such a significant part in earning, including the two Stanley Cup championships in 1996 and 2001 and the eight consecutive division titles as a player, plus the surprising Central Division crown that earned him the Jack Adams Award in his first of three years as a coach. His gaze also caught all of the banners that had gone up since he left.
The greatest goaltender in franchise history is back Monday night for the first time as coach of the New York Islanders. The coach who started with a flourish but then quit just before what would have been his fourth season in charge is not.
“If I go back to the past, I wish I would have done things different at the time,” Roy said of his coaching tenure with the Avalanche. “I think I didn’t have enough respect for the position of coaching. I think I learned a lot from it. I think it makes me the coach I am today.
“Do I have regrets? No, because it makes me who I am today, and I think I’m in a much better place today than I was then — more respect for the position, more appreciation to be back in the league and work in the league.”
Roy is in his first full season with the Islanders. He arrived in January 2024, and helped New York reach the playoffs after being in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings on the day he was hired.
One Islanders veteran said Roy brings the same energy to a morning skate in October as he does to a Stanley Cup Playoffs game. Anthony Duclair, who played for Roy with the Quebec Remparts, said a call from his former coach was the biggest reason he signed with Islanders this offseason.
“A few more gray hairs, but that’s about it,” Duclair said of what’s changed. “His passion, his intensity hasn’t wavered at all. I think he’s gotten smarter from his experience in Colorado and then going back to juniors.”
When Roy resigned Aug. 11, 2016, it left the Avalanche in a perilous position with the start of the season just weeks away. The Avs had missed the playoffs the previous two seasons, and going through the process of hiring a new coach in August is never ideal.
Jared Bednar was at home in South Carolina, spending the last few days of his offseason with family before getting ready to return to Cleveland for his job as an AHL coach. His plans changed. The Avs hired him two weeks later and have been one of the most successful franchises in the NHL since.
“I probably owe him a big hug and a steak dinner,” said Bednar, who has never met Roy. “Everyone does what’s right for them personally, but it just opened a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
It will be a big night for the fans at Ball Arena, a chance to welcome back one of their heroes … and with enough time passed to not focus on how the coaching tenure ended. It’s also a big game for both clubs, who enter the night winless in early-season play.
Roy, just as he did when he returned to Montreal last season with the Islanders, said it will be all business ahead of the game.
“We all know what is at stake here,” Duclair said. “We know it’s a big game for him. It’s not a conversation we need to openly talk about in conversation. Everybody knows what the deal is. We’re looking for our first win, and what better way to do it than in Colorado for him.”
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Still, there will surely be a moment for a robust ovation. Roy said he works much harder now as the Islanders coach, and learned to put his ego aside.
He’s also proud of his influence on the decision to select Nathan MacKinnon with the first pick in the 2013 NHL draft and called Joe Sakic shortly after Bednar and the Avs won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
“A lot of good memories,” Roy said. “I mean, played here eight years, coach here for three years. So a lot of good memories. That’s the way I want to look at it.
“I always have the Avs in my heart.”
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