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It's been 10 years since the night Patrick Roy vowed he'd played his last game for the Canadiens, but the wounds are still fresh for the legendary goaltender


Time, apparently, does not heal all wounds. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Patrick Roy trade that shocked the hockey world and left the Canadiens, who dealt their franchise player from a position of weakness after citing irreconcilable differences, reeling for years in its aftermath.

For Roy, now 40 and retired from the NHL, the wounds of his stormy exit from Montreal remain as fresh today as the night the legendary goalie stormed off the Forum ice during a humiliating 11-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 2, 1995.

"It's not a date that is fun to remember, to be honest with you," Roy said.

"It's so sad how it finished in Montreal," added Roy, who led the Canadiens to Stanley Cups in 1986 and '93. "I've never been back there, not even for a game or anything."

Roy, who was not pulled from the nets until midway through the second period of that infamous game against the Wings - after surrendering the ninth Detroit goal on 26 shots - said he still feels he was deliberately humiliated by coach Mario Tremblay in front of a jeering crowd.

After removing his goalie mask, a steamed Roy brushed past the unyielding stare of Tremblay, who stood rigid with his arms folded behind the Canadiens' bench. Roy, his eyes like tiny drill bits of intensity, abruptly stopped, turned and moved toward team president Ronald Corey, who was perched in his usual front-row seat.

"This is my last game in Montreal," Roy told Corey.

It was. Four days later, rookie general manager Rejean Houle stunned Montreal hockey fans when he announced that Roy and team captain Mike Keane had been traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for three players: goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, and forwards Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko, a journeyman.

The trade paid immediate dividends for the Avalanche (formerly the Quebec Nordiques), who captured their first Stanley Cup in 1996 with Roy in vintage playoff form. Another Cup would follow in 2001, with Roy winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP for the third time in his career.

"That Cup in 1996 was all about pride," Roy said. "I had only one name in my mind when I won."

Mario Tremblay?

"Exactly."

Tremblay chose not to comment on the 10th anniversary of Le Trade. However, in 1995 Tremblay defended his decision to sunburn the back of Roy's neck this way: "Maybe I could have told him to come to the bench after seven goals. I didn't. I waited for a couple more. Two more goals, I don't think, add up to a career."

The Canadiens have never challenged for the Stanley Cup since the trade and have missed the playoffs four times in the interim.

Of the five players involved in the deal, only Rucinsky (New York Rangers) and Thibault (Pittsburgh Penguins) are still in the NHL. Houle still serves in a public-relations capacity with the Canadiens, while Tremblay is an assistant coach under Jacques Lemaire with the Minnesota Wild.

"I'm not angry at the Canadiens organization anymore," said Roy, the head coach and part-owner of the Quebec Remparts junior team in his native Quebec City. "Rejean Houle has called a few times and told me I'm welcome any time, but I'm not comfortable with it."

Roy, who hung up his goalie pads two years ago with an NHL record of 551 career wins, said he would be honoured if the Canadiens retired his No. 33 sweater, but says he has few remaining ties to the organization.

"Except for Saku Koivu, whom I got to know a bit, everybody from back then is gone," he said. "I have more friends in Colorado than in Montreal."

Interestingly, Roy doesn't blame Tremblay or Houle for hitting the panic button and making the trade. Instead, he points the finger at Corey, who had replaced coach Jacques Demers and GM Serge Savard two months before the trade with the inexperienced Houle and Tremblay.

"I realize today, as a coach and GM, that it was a shaky decision for them to trade me," Roy said. "But these guys were not responsible for what happened. Ronald Corey was. You can't just bring in some radio guy (like Tremblay) to coach the team. You need to gain experience first to run a team, like Claude Julien and Bob Gainey have. I'm just coaching at the junior level and everything happens so fast behind the bench ... changing lines and so on."

Roy also regrets his own actions the fateful night St. Patrick lost his halo.

"I was criticized for the way I acted, and it's sad it finished that way, no doubt about it," he said. "But the Canadiens organization had always asked for performance. They always pushed the players to be at their best. They almost demanded perfection every time we were on the ice."

Roy said the club's traditionally high expectations changed

after Tremblay took over.

"All of a sudden, you have a new coaching staff, and you talk about winning and it's too big a thing," Roy said. "Instead it's, 'Hey, let's try to make the playoffs.'

"It was better for me to leave. In Colorado, they were thinking that way. Pierre Lacroix wanted to win, and I was able to leave hockey on the ice."

In hindsight, Roy, whose pride and steely competitiveness had always been considered assets, says the deal might never have happened if Tremblay, his former roommate, had spared him from public embarrassment.

"That's it," Roy said. "That's the way I always saw it.

"When I passed in front of (Tremblay) on the bench the first time, I saw his reaction. Normally, a coach will tap you on the pads and say: 'Don't worry about it.' But he didn't say a word.

"Now, whenever I pull a goalie, I'm always sure to give him a tap and say: 'I'm still behind you.' "

jmeagher@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005


CBC / Fateful Moment: in this picture from TV, Patrick Roy tells Habs president Ronald Corey he won't play for the team again as coach Mario Tremblay watches.