Its been a week since the Avalanche season ended, and I wanted to get Patrick Roy's post-season (as opposed to postseason) comments on here before too long. This is running as a Q&A off his season-ending session. A small portion already was included in my NHL.com stories or in this blog, but I wanted to run the entire transcript.

Anyway, here goes:

(Roy's reaction to GM Joe Sakic saying he'll return as coach next season)

"For some reason I never felt in danger. I have a great relationship with Joe, we always talk, and we're very close. I know that we all have to be better, not just the coaching staff. The players, the core, we all know we have to do things a bit different next year in order to be more successful and make the playoffs. The objective is, we have to make the playoffs, there's no doubt about it. It's clear in our mind, and the coaching staff has been working extremely hard to prepare our team very well.

"l'm not saying we're making strides like we'd like to. I'd like to be in the playoffs, this is something I don't like. But I feel that this team has progressed in some ways. We need a lot more from our core and the only way we're going to be a contender is if that happens."

(Do you feel the need to change your coaching style, to tweak your system?)

"It's only my third year as an NHL coach. There's things that I could improve. One thing I've been trying to do is adapt to the team. If I thought we were struggling on our tracking, then I would try to facilitate this. Maybe I should try and persevere and be tougher on the message that's how we want to play because I believe this instead of putting Band-Aids over Band-Aids. That's the thing maybe I'm going to have to change in my structure.

"Can we be better on putting more pressure on the defensemen when you have the puck? Yes. Is it an adjustment we tried to make in the season? Yes, we have. But the big deal on our D-zone coverage is the gap, and it's also on the turnovers. These are things we're going to have to improve. When you turn over the puck like we've been doing this year it's obvious that we're going to spend a lot of time in our end."

(The Avalanche lost the final six games and eight of the final nine. How disappointing, frustrating, was it these last few weeks?)

"The part that I'm the most frustrated with ... we were seventh in the conference and we had Nashville coming in our building and we lost that game and from there they went like this (raises his arm) and we went like that (lowers his arm).

"After that we had another opportunity when we played Minny at home (and) we lost that game. Our home record was not good enough. We had 44 points on the road and 38 at home, c'mon. For a team that wants to make the playoffs, it doesn't work. This is the part that I try to pinpoint and try and put my finger on it why we only got 38 points and 44 on the road. I have my ideas, as probably everyone does, but at the end of the day it's hard to understand."

(Does the team mentality need to change?)

"The first year I got here we were going into the third periods and we couldn't believe we could lose that hockey game. This year, since the first game of the season when we lost that game (blowing a 4-1 third-period lead to Minnesota), it really made us very fragile. Every time we were going into the third I think we carried that game all year long. It really hit us hard.

"It's something that we're going to approach next year and have to be stronger in the third period, especially mentally. Even if the other team starts buzzing, we don't have to have the urgency to try to get in the offense right away. We need to just play simple hockey (and make) smart decisions with the puck. That's the type of hockey that our team needs to understand.

"When something happens like the first game against Minny, it's always in the back of your head. It happened against us many times, but it never happened for us."

(Does Semyon Varlamov have to be better?)

"The entire core has to have more consistency, they have to be good night after night. That's the NHL of today. Because of the salary structure it's obvious that the core has to be the one that carries the team.

"Do we need Varly to be the Varly of three years ago? That's how we're going to make the playoffs, it's how we're going to be a team that's going to compete with the best teams in the NHL. Did he play well enough the past two years and especially this year? I'm sure he would love to play better, there's no doubt in my mind."

(Any positives that stand out?)

"If our core understands that they have a larger role to play in the success of our team, we're going to be fine. If everyone plays consistent night after night ... we mentioned about six guys we believe are a part of our core, then night after night I'm sure they're capable of doing a better job consistency wise."



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