Whatever, he's still a crybaby. My fondest memory will be the last
game he played against the Wings in the playoffs.


--- In antipatrickroyfanclub@yahoogroups.com, "Jules Delorme"
<julesdelorme1@y...> wrote:
> Patrick Roy retired from hockey today.
> If you're not a hockey fan you might not have any idea who Patrick
> Roy is.
> If you're French Canadian, chances are you are a hockey fan. If you
> grew up in or anywhere near the province of Quebec Patrick Roy's
name
> probably has a resonance for you that you could only explain to the
> denizens of ancient world's where names like Heracles, Gilgamesh
and
> Alexander echo as much the skies as they do the earth. Hockey here
is
> as much religion as it is sport and the man they call Saint Patrick
> has earned a reverence that belongs to a handful of men who have
gone
> beyond the heroic and become myth.
> I learned from my french Canadian mother to deny my frenchness. She
> forbade us to speak french, scolded us for showing any french
> mannerisms or accent and swore to anyone who would listen that her
> ancestors were Irish and not french. A french Canadian accent where
> we grew up was the equivalent of a deep southern Alabama accent in
> the U.S.. It was heard as an announcement that you were dirt poor,
> the lowest of the low. Being french Canadian was something that you
> felt like you had to apologize for. Even today those feeling linger
> so much that I am often the first to make the french joke and if
> someone asks me about my heritage I tell them that I am Mohawk
first
> and french only a distant and apologetic second.
> So I fought for my right to be Mohawk. I hid from my right to be
> french.
> Because being french Canadian at that time in that place was not
> something to be proud of.
> Except when it came to hockey.
> Because hockey was the one thing that French Canadians were the
very
> best at.
> At that time the Montreal Canadiens were simply the best team in
all
> of professional sport. They had won the Stanley Cup, had dominated
> their sport more than the Yankees, the Celtics, more than any other
> team in the history of professional sport. And the Habs, Les
> Habitants, were predominantly a French Canadian team. Their heroes,
> our heroes were The Rocket, Maurice Richard, with his fierce coal
> black eyes, The Man Behind The Mask, Jacques Plante, knitting
toques
> and stopping pucks with the same quiet calm, Le Grand Bill, Jean
> Beliveau, tall and handsome and elegantly perfect, and Le Petit
> Fleur, Guy Lafleur, more beautiful to watch in full flight than
> anything I've ever seen.
> They were all, all of them French. And they were better at what
they
> did than anybody else.
> And there was Saint Patrick, Patrick Roy. This skinny, gawky
arrogant
> kid who seemed to appear out of nowhere in 1986 to lead an
otherwise
> mediocre Canadiens team to the Stanley Cup. Like The Rocket he was
> defiant and unapologetically French. Barely able to speak English
> when he came into the league he made his point clear to his
opponents
> by winding merrily at them after he made stop after impossible
stop.
> And he carried Les Habitants on his skinny back to their second and
> perhaps final Stanley Cup, shutting opposing teams down so
completely
> that even that crumbling franchise couldn't help but win.
> When the Canadiens forgot to treasure their greatest star his
> defiance turned on them. He left. And the team he left sank down to
> become no better than average without him.
> Saint Patrick then became the core, on a team that had also left
> Quebec behind, around which a Dynasty was built in Colorado.
> Some were disappointed, some were angry. But Saint Patrick was
still
> unmistakably French Canadian. He still lived for the most part in
> Quebec. His wife was French. His children were French. He passed up
> Olympic glory to watch his oldest son play goal in the Quebec
league.
> And Roy was still the very best, perhaps the best who ever lived at
> what he did. He led Colorado to two more Stanley Cups and won more
> victories than any other goaltender in NHL history.
> It was hard not to still feel proud.
> Because Patrick Roy, like Richard and Plante, Beliveau and Lafleur
> had risen beyond the status of mere hero. He had become a myth.
> And today, with his children in the audience and his wife beside
him
> Saint Patrick said goodbye to playing hockey.
> Once again there is disappointment to see him go. But when see the
> way his eyes light up when he looks at his children, how easy and
> comfortable this often troubled athlete is with his family I
realize
> that perhaps it is time for the man to be just a man.
> To hockey fans Patrick Roy is the man who changed hockey forever,
who
> raised the goaltender's role from that of mere backstop to the very
> foundation around which a team is built. He did for goalies what
> Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky did for everyone else. He made
creativity
> and leadership essential parts of the net minder's game. He has
> become the touchstone against which all other goaltenders will be
> measured.
> It seems like no accident that Patrick Roy chooses to retire at a
> time when two French Canadian goalies who modeled themselves after
> him, who were inspired by his mighty achievements, are the central
> figures in the final battle for the Stanley Cup. Now, more than
ever
> the contest seems to have become a question of who will be Saint
> Patrick's successor.
> To a kid who grew up feeling ashamed to be French Canadian Patrick
> Roy is so much more than just a man, so much more than just a great
> hockey player.
> He is perhaps the last of his kind.
> He is that tingle of excitement, that rush of pride, that
breathless
> awe that makes life even if for the briefest moments, glorious.
> Patrick Roy the man has given in to his arthritic hips and the love
> of family to leave the legend behind.
> But Saint Patrick the Myth will be inspiring greatness and will be
> the source of mythic story telling for generations to come.
> And for me his name, his memory still fills me with excitement and
> pride.
> To be a hockey fan.
> To be Canadian.
> And yes, even to be French Canadian.