Patrick Roy knows what you think about goaltenders.
“Loners,” he said. “A little different.”
But Roy never thought of himself that way as a four-time Stanley Cup winner and a Hockey Hall of Famer.
“We all have our little things, obviously,” he told Newsday. “But I always loved to communicate and talk with the guys. I was trying to not be different.”
That is one reason he has been able to make a rare transition – from goaltender to NHL head coach, first with Colorado in the mid-2010s and now with the Islanders.
But Roy acknowledged that being one of the guys is not the only challenge for goalies who aspire to lead entire teams. There are matters of strategy and skills that simply are not part of a goalie’s experience.
So even the best players at that position have a lot to learn, which helps explain why only eight men ever have played at least 20 regular-season games as an NHL goalie and coached at least 20 games in the NHL. And Roy is the only one doing it now.
Perhaps No. 1 among the challenges is the natural separation goalies have from their teammates because of their unique role.
Scott Gordon, who coached the Islanders from 2008-10, felt that last part acutely when he was a goalie, including 23 games with the Nordiques in the early 1990s.
While he had “a singular focus, and that’s the puck,” his teammates were digging deeper into the game.
“One of the things that I missed about playing hockey, having played goalie and not another position, is the camaraderie that you get on the bench,” said Gordon, now an assistant with the Sharks.
“There’s a lot of dialogue that goes on on the bench, different ideas that are shared between players, at practice, in games. It’s almost like a foreign language. You’re not really a part of it, because you don’t have those experiences.”
Steve Valiquette, an MSG analyst who was an NHL goalie in the 2000s, including for the Islanders and Rangers, said goalies might be included in pregame strategy for…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply