Roy: You Won't Like Him When He's Angry

There's no denying the fact that during his career as an NHL goaltender, Patrick Roy was a spectacle.

There's also no denying the fact that thus far in his career as head coach of the QJMHL's Quebec Remparts, Roy has also been a spectacle, but for a different reason.

Well, kind of.

Apart from being arguably the greatest NHL goalie of all time, Roy has also gained some notoriety for his " charismatic" approach to the game, on and off the ice.

Scraps with Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood at the height of the Colorado Avalanche/Detroit Red Wings rivalry in the late 90's, being arrested for domestic violence, and more recently, as coach, giving his own son, Jonathan, the go-ahead to senselessly pound on an opposing goalie are all things that can be found on the 43-year-old's resume.

Temper, temper.

Roy's natural talent when it comes to the game of hockey is not in question, but what strikes me as disturbing is how many times he's gone way overboard in situations that don't necessarily call for his input anyways.

So now with all the speculation as to whether or not Roy will in fact become the next head coach of the Avalanche, the organization should take a long hard look at his issues of uncontrolled anger that have clearly not yet been resolved even after all these years.

The team needs to make their decision, at least in part, based on that aspect of his personality.  

Sure, there are a million reasons why you'd want Roy behind your bench: his unbelievable determination, his success as a junior coach, his knowledge of how to win a Stanley Cup.

These are all things that are extremely valuable to any team. But at what cost?

It's almost a given that Roy would make the Avalanche a better team, partly because of the fact that they can't get much worse than they were this past season. But I can already envision questionable calls from referees and press conferences after dismal performances, and at least in my mind those scenarios end with a lot of profanity or a lot of someone's face getting bashed in.

The truth is that I would love to see Roy coaching in the NHL sometime in the next few years. I believe that he'll make a great coach, or at least a better coach than Wayne Gretzky.

This will all happen one day, but I'm just not sure if he can take a position of such high responsibility without having to kick some bad habits first.