He changed game on the fly
Roy influenced Boston goalies
Perhaps the primary reason the Canadiens are retiring Patrick Roy's No. 33 tonight at Bell Centre prior to the Boston-Montreal match is because the former Habs netminder, under the tutelage of goalie coach Francois Allaire, revolutionized the game with his trademark butterfly style.
Roy went 551-315-131 with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage, winning four Stanley Cups (two with Montreal, two with Colorado) in 19 seasons.
"I think the position demands that you stand tall and say, 'Hey, guys, I'm there,' " Roy said during a conference call this week. "You don't want the players thinking, 'Is the goaltender going to be OK tonight? Is he going to be shaky?' You want to make sure that the guys go, 'OK, we're OK. Patty is in the net. He's going to have a good game. All I have to worry about is play hard as a team.' "
Roy influenced future generations of NHL goalies and earned his spot in history as arguably the league's most important netminder. You won't get much argument from either of the Bruins' goalies, who have been directly touched by Roy and his mentor.
Manny Fernandez, raised in Quebec like Roy, stared down the legend while both played in the Western Conference and claims Allaire as his personal coach. Tim Thomas, fresh out of the University of Vermont in 1997, attended his first pro camp with Colorado (formerly Quebec), the organization that drafted him in 1994 and featured Roy as its No. 1 netminder.
Thomas, a two-time All-American, had never played butterfly before. He was reminded repeatedly during camp with Colorado.
"[Allaire] and Patrick Roy put me through the basics," Thomas recalled. "Patrick Roy himself, he'd take off most of his equipment, and he'd be telling us what to do. I think that was a little frustrating for him, because I remember a couple times him going, 'No, no, no! You cannot do it that way!' "
It was a radical departure for Thomas, formerly instructed simply to stop the puck and not worry about technique. When he was a collegian, Thomas's favorite goalie was Dominik Hasek. When he arrived in pro camp, Thomas stayed on his feet and kicked out pucks instead of dropping into the butterfly. During one drill, Thomas recalled getting heat from Roy because on behind-the-net plays, he'd cheat by hugging one post (the right, for example) and looking behind to his left - a major no-no.
"I wasn't getting scored on in the drills," said Thomas. "But [Allaire] was still making me do it a different way. As a young kid sometimes, it's hard because it's like, 'Why? I'm stopping the puck.' But now looking in hindsight, he was right. You don't have to use [the techniques] exactly like they teach you in goalie school. But you have to know them and have to be using them to survive. I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't start to incorporate some of that stuff into my game."
Roy had been traded to Colorado by the time Fernandez had established himself as an NHLer. By then, Fernandez, like most goalies of his generation, had grasped the importance of the butterfly style and incorporated the techniques. When he was with Laval of the QMJHL, Fernandez had worked with Benoit Allaire, Francois's brother. Gilles Lupien, Fernandez's agent, introduced him to Francois, and he started attending Allaire's goalie camps, and has called him his personal coach ever since.
"It was the two of them," Fernandez said of Roy and Francois Allaire. "It wasn't just one guy. They started all that stuff."
Sturm out again
Marco Sturm missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Sturm was sidelined only twice last season (eye, flu-like symptoms). Sturm didn't travel with the team to Montreal last night and will sit out a third straight game tonight . . . Matt Lashoff, recalled Wednesday, will most likely serve as the seventh defenseman for the near future. "I think when a guy gets called up right from his team and doesn't really get a chance to practice with your hockey club, it can be a little tougher than if a guy's been around for at least a few days and has a better feel of the hockey club and what it's like to be on the ice with those guys," said coach Claude Julien . . . The Bruins will introduce their third jersey Monday at 2 p.m. at the TD Banknorth Garden pro shop. They will wear the uniform Friday against the Islanders . . . The Bruins poured 21 shots on goal in the second period. It was the most in one period since the Bruins blasted 24 in the second period against Toronto Oct. 24, 2005 . . . Patrice Bergeron continued his strong work on the draw, winning 13 of 21 faceoffs (62 percent) . . . Matt Hunwick replaced P.J. Axelsson on the point on the No. 2 power-play unit. Axelsson replaced Chuck Kobasew at forward on the first unit. 