Patrick Roy's Kinder Side

The great Red Fisher wrote about Patrick Roy in Wednesday's National Post. Fisher says the Canadiens are planning one more jersey retirement in advance of their centennial anniversary, and speculates that Patrick Roy will be the man so honoured.

Fisher argues that any decision to retire #33 - which has not been in use since the 1995 day Roy left - should be carefully examined. This of course follows the controversial junior league brawl involving Roy's son Jonathan, but Fisher goes on to list many other on and off ice controversies where Roy's temper got the better of him. As great as a performer as he was, the old school Fisher questions whether he was enough of a sportsman to deserve the honor of the game's greats.

Fisher may have a point, but he also gives us a look at an unpublicized, kinder moment from Roy's days in Montreal:

Roy surely has forgotten it, but I still remember one morning after a Canadiens practice in Quebec City. There was a game to be played that night, but Roy remained on the ice waiting for a 10-year-old to join him.

The boy was born to pain, and lived with it bravely - he had this dream of going one-on-one with his idol, Roy. What could be greater than to score a goal on Patrick Roy?

So there they were at the Quebec Coliseum: Roy skating in little circles, sending up small shivers of ice pellets, rattling the blade of his stick on the ice before settling into a crouch in his crease, looking every inch like a guy in the moments before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. The boy's mother looked on nervously watching her child who had not smiled or laughed nearly often enough in his young life.

"Okay ... I'm ready," Roy finally yelled at the boy. "Show me your best."

Full Story @ National Post.com