Patrick Roy this, Patrick Roy that. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Sure he’s had an exceptional 1st season as an NHL coach. And yes, he made a gutsy call in Game 1 vs the Wild pulling his goalie as early as he did and needing all of that time to get a game tying goal to force overtime where his team won. Kudos to him on both fronts. However, tonight is where he shows his coaching chops, in my opinion.
The Wild gave his squad everything they could handle in Game 1 and in Game 2, he adjusted and his squad had an easier time of things vs the Wild. So, here we are again. The Wild gave the Avs everything they could handle in Game 3 and it’s time for him to make adjustments again. Can he do it? That remains to be seen.
Also, this whole Matt Cooke suspension, at least for me, is eerily similar to how the whole Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident with the exception that Moore’s hit on Marcus Naslund was perfectly clean. The thing that concerns me is that when you combine the high level emotions of the playoffs for warriors that are NHL hockey players with testosterone, sometimes you get more unfortunate consequences. When you combine that with Patrick Roy’s temperament that Roy displayed as a coach in the minor’s, it gets me wondering whether he will send his guys out on the ice to take out one of the Wild’s top players. Now, mind you, I’m not saying that he will do that or has done that, it just concerns me that a matter that should now be considered settled (save and except for the next time Matt Cooke plays the Avs), will not be considered as settled until the Avs have their eye-for-an-eye retribution. Given this, the Wild players should certainly be prepared for anything and keep their heads on the proverbial swizzle.
Sure the compete level will be the same or even more intense. I just hope everyone keeps their wits about them and that we don’t have another Moore-Bertuzzi incident. Decide it on the ice and within the rules. If someone steps outside of the rules, the refs and/or league will handle it as they did with Matt Cooke. Sure hockey is fast and physical and injuries happen. I just hope that if they do occur, that they are unintended consequences of playing a fast and physical game.
That said, Go Wild!!!!!