Patrick Roy's NHL coaching debut produced a victory and a $10,000 fine. Welcome back to the National Hockey League, Mr. Volatile.
On Wednesday, Roy lost his cool shortly after the final horn in a 6-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks, yelling at Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau and then pounding on the glass partition separating the two benches with so much force that it began to tilt.
The league punished Roy for his outburst and issued a reminder that this sort of behavior won't be tolerated.
"Roy's actions at the conclusion of the game were irresponsible," said Colin Campbell, NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations. "One of the responsibilities of an NHL coach is to help diffuse volatile situations on the bench."
What set the Hall of Fame goalie off was a knee-to-knee hit between rookie Nathan MacKinnon and Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy late in the game. Roy thought Lovejoy's hit was unnecessary and could've been avoided.
"I guess I have to change a few things. I got the $10,000 fine by the league for that," Roy said Thursday after practice. "I understand it now. At the same time, I will always defend my players."
And that's appreciated.
"It just shows that he cares about his players a lot," said MacKinnon, the No. 1 pick in the draft over the summer. "He's very passionate and he'll stand up for what he believes in and not really think about the circumstances or the criticism."
Even a day later, Roy was still a little bit worked up.
Sure, the hit remained a sore subject, but so were comments Boudreau made about him after the game. Boudreau called Roy's antics "bush league" and added that "(Roy is) going to be in for a long year, if he's going to yell at every player and yell at the refs at every stoppage of play. It's not the way the game is played."
Roy fumed over the assertion.
"I didn't talk to players until that moment. During the game, I don't talk to the players. I don't talk to the referees," Roy said. "What Boudreau said was all lies. I'm not going to get too involved in this one but to be honest when you talk about classless — when you're lying, this is classless."
This could be a very entertaining season with Roy on the bench.
"He's very passionate," said forward Alex Tanguay, who played alongside Roy when the Avalanche won the 2001 Stanley Cup title. "The emotion and intensity of a first game probably got to him a little bit at the end. He's fine."
Defending his players is foremost in Roy's mind.
"It was what needed to be done," Roy said. "The incident with Lovejoy going after Nathan at the end of the game, I thought that was something that was inappropriate.
"This is the way I dealt with this one. Will I deal with it differently next time? Maybe. Or maybe not."
Contributing: Associated Press