Ryan Hollweg ... lovely

Alex Pietrangelo was playing in his third NHL game and he might be fortunate that there will be a fourth.

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Blues rally to beat Leafs in shootout (National Post)

Blog blast past: St. Patrick's day of reckoning

Jonathan Roy, son of Montreal Canadiens legend Patrick Roy, has been charged with assault for his attack on QMJHL goalie Bobby Nadeau. There's no word if the Quebec courts will accept the he was "standing there like a Nancy Boy" defence advocated by hockey writer Pierre LeBrun. From March 23, 2008, here's our post, after the jump.

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)