I'm going to miss Patrick Roy.
Whatever you think about the Colorado icon and former Avalanche coach, you can't question his will to win, his desire to return this team to the elite status it had during his playing days, even though it didn't happen.
Was he an effective coach? I'm no expert in this area, but the Avalanche floundered the past two seasons, got off to terrible starts, couldn't get out of their own end, were badly outshot most nights and last year fell apart by losing eight of the last nine games after moving into a playoff position.
Whether his coaching strategy, personnel or a combination of the two were to blame, the Avalanche missed the playoffs his final two seasons after they overachieved in 2013-14 with 112 points and a surprising first-place finish in the Central Division, in large part because Semyon Varlamov was a Vezina Trophy finalist and they scored so many last-minute goals after Roy pulled his goalie.
That was followed, of course, by a seven-game first-round playoff loss to Minnesota, when the Avalanche blew several leads in Game 7 on home ice. Roy leaves with a 130-92-24 record and the one playoff appearance. No doubt, he was frustrated with the team's play the last two seasons, frustrated with his inability to get the Avalanche going.
But he was easy to deal with from a media standpoint, same as when he played here. Ask a question, he gave you a straight answer. Inquire about an injured player, he was pretty specific about the ailment, none of this ridiculous upper- and lower-body stuff. He has a sense of humor, was quotable, could be sarcastic, and seemed to enjoy bantering with reporters.
That said, I think a new coach with a new approach will be a good thing for the Avalanche. A fresh message might be just what they need to start playing to their strengths -- speed, for one -- and to get back on track.
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The fact that Roy has resigned as coach and vice president of hockey operations remains a stunner, and it still isn't entirely clear as to why he made this decision despite his statement -- released through a public relations agency in Quebec City rather than through the Avalanche -- that he didn't have enough input in the decision-making process of the team.
General manager Joe Sakic, who received the resignation phone call from Roy before the statement was released, said that wasn't the case.
"He was consulted on everything," Sakic said in a conference call early Thursday evening. "Obviously early on when I was getting comfortable in my role, I relied on him more. Now as we built up our staff, especially in season, we allowed Patrick to focus more on coaching. In the offseason we started working on free agents together.
"We never had an issue. We were friends as players, we're friends now. He was always involved, especially early he was a big help to me. He was aware of all the decisions we were making. To be honest with you, I think that's a question that you have to ask Patrick. I know we talked about everything.
"I know we were on the same page. I saw his statement and I don't think anything more than it was a statement. I know how we feel, I talked to him, and moving forward we're still on the same page."
If Roy wanted to sign a high-priced free agent July 1, it wasn't going to happen. Sakic had said as much publicly, that he wasn't going to make a "splash" in the market, that he was more focused on signing restricted free agents Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie. Would Roy have preferred to deal Barrie?
"We made the decision not to go big in free agency, to focus on signing Nathan and Tyson, and making sure we had room and weren't caught in a bad situation (with the salary cap)," Sakic said. "That was the reason why we didn't do anything big. We always talked. Like I said, he was aware of everything."
To steal a quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, it gets "curiouser and curiouser."
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Sakic and his staff will spend the weekend putting together a list of candidates for the coaching vacancy. The timing could be better with training camp set to start in about six weeks.
Sakic plans to go outside the organization, which would be a first for the Avalanche. Previous coaches Marc Crawford, Bob Hartley, Tony Granato, Joel Quenneville -- miss him? -- Joe Sacco and Roy all had ties to the Avalanche in one form or another.
That would rule out assistants Tim Army, Dave Farrish and new hire Nolan Pratt. Sakic said he's happy with all of them, but you have to wonder if part-time goalie coach Francois Allaire will stick around without Roy.
“We’re going to put a group of candidates together and then start the interview process,… Sakic said. “As you can probably all understand, this caught us all off guard. There’s no timetable. Obviously, we’d like to have it done before training camp. But we want to interview quite a few people and see who we all feel is the best fit.…
I think the Avalanche could use a fresh face, if there is such a person in an NHL that hires, fires and rehires the same guys all the time.
Chicago Blackhawks assistant Kevin Dineen, 52, would be a popular choice. He played two seasons at the University of Denver (1981-83) and 19 seasons in the NHL with Hartford, Philadelphia, Carolina, Ottawa and Columbus.
Dineen coached the Portland Pirates in the AHL for six seasons and the Florida Panthers for parts of three before he was let go 16 games into the 2013-14 season. The Panthers went 38-26-18 in his debut season in 2011-12 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. They were 56-62-28 overall under Dineen, who has spent the past two seasons working with Quenneville.
Bob Hartley, who coached the Avalanche to their second Stanley Cup in 2001, is available. Calgary fired him after last season, but I don't think he's in the picture.