Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy is in a whole lot of hot water. Roy, as you know, is the coach and owner of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts. Long story short, his son, Jonathan Roy, a goalie, left the net during a line brawl against rival Chicoutimi yesterday and apparently with his old man egging him on, attacked opposing goalie Bobby Nadeau, who as you can see, had no intention of fighting back.
The fact TSN made light of it by running a split-screen of Jonathan Roy whaling on Nadeau with a clip of the elder Roy fighting in his playing days suggests the hockey pucks will stick up for St. Patrick and paint this as an isolated incident. As a sidebar, handling the story that way was in poor taste. Did they not know, not care or not remember the elder Roy being arrested for domestic violence in 2000 (the charges were later dropped) when his son happened to be 11 years old, a very impressionable age?
Nadeau being attacked also wasn't an isolated incident that can laughed off. It was also one of two borderline assaults on QMJHL goaltenders on Saturday. Ryan Mior got nailed by a Shawinigan player after a whistle in the late stages of the Gatineau Olympiques' 9-3 win, touching off a line brawl that led to about 10 ejections. The Quebec league's commissioner, Gilles Courteau, will have to do some major damage control. Fights as a honest outgrowth of emotion and pent-up hostilities are one thing; keeping a game from becoming a gong show is another.
Patrick Roy's reputation takes a hit here. He's enjoyed a halo effect and as a junior hockey maven, he probably gets away with a bit because, well, he's Patrick Roy and he's in Quebec, out of sight and out of mind to most of the national media in Canada (such as it is). Now he's exposed. The temper tantrums as a player, the 911 call his then-wife made to police eight years ago and the night his son wigged out on the ice are a troubling tableau. Judging by the comments left on the RDS.ca website, there's some clamouring to see the rumbling Roys booted from the rest of the QMJHL playoffs.
(You can't make this up. Today is Bobby Nadeau's 20th birthday. Some gift!)
Related:
Ça dégénère à Chicoutimi (RDS.ca)
Roy's son bares knuckles in QMJHL brawl (CBC.ca)
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3 comments:
Expect a lengthy suspension for the son, and definitely some time off for the old man as well. The kid went the length of the ice and attacked the opposition goalie in his crease, for Christ's sake. I'm down with old time hockey, (i.e. a knuckle dragging cro-magnon) and I believe that people sometimes do overreact to brawls, but there are limits, and this was beyond the pale. That other kid was in no way a willing participant, and Roy Jr. turned that game into a Gong Show. He and his father, who has managed to become even less likeable in his new career than he was as a player, should both be sat down for the duration of the playoffs, and put on probation for next season.
What depresses me is the fact that the Quebec Remparts are the defending Memorial Cup champions....which only proves to me that any idiot can coach and GM a team to the Mem Cup!
Unless they're employed by the Kingston Frontenacs.
(Come on, Kirk Muller... help the Habs win the Stanley Cup and then opt for a simpler life in Kingston.)
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