HALIFAX | Proud of their accomplishment, the Remparts players couldn’t help thinking of Patrick Roy when they lifted the Gilles-Courteau trophy.
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It’s no secret that this is probably Roy’s last year behind the Remparts bench. And the players were well aware of that.
“All season, we talked about it. It was a motivation for us, said striker James Malatesta. We knew that for many of us it was the last season here and that, potentially, for Pat too. It was an additional motivation for us. All the years I spent with the Remparts, he always gave his 110%.
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A little further, Zachary Bolduc abounded in the same direction.
“It’s Patrick, but also Jacques [Tanguay]. They are two passionate guys and they wanted this victory so badly. Pat said it before, but he doesn’t have to be here. I’m so happy for him.”
“During my operation, they were always there and helped me, added Mikaël Huchette, who missed more than four months of activity in the regular season due to surgery on both wrists. It’s special to be able to give back to them. If this was Patrick’s last game, to win the trophy, he must be the happiest man on earth. He did everything in life.”
“It’s so deserved”
For Roy and Tanguay, the adventure began 26 years ago when they revived the Remparts.
They lived together the ups and downs of the organization, but also of the last season.
“It’s so deserved [pour Patrick], mentioned Tanguay. We talk about it five times a day since the beginning of the year, minimum! We did that around a few glasses of wine too. It was a season filled with emotion, but we believed in it until the end.
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This conquest was the culmination of a grand plan set in motion in 2018 when Tanguay convinced Roy to return to lead the Remparts, after a stint in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche.
“It started with the selection of [Nicolas] Savoy five years ago. It was the cornerstone of this team. I remember when Patrick and Nicole were trying to convince him to come. It was not easy, they had brought his parents. Then, the following year, it was the Gauchers, Malatesta and company. It was built stone by stone.”
Each stone placed served a purpose: that of trying to win top honors two years in a row, in 2022 and 2023. After missing out last year, they finally put the finishing touches on this year.
“It’s a great accomplishment of the last four years. Our goal was to build for this year. We should have won last year, but we didn’t. This championship is very significant. But the hardest part is still to win and that’s what we’re going to start next week,” he adds, speaking of the Memorial Cup.
A proud “big sister”
Patrick Roy has often stressed the importance of the director of player services and media relations, Nicole Bouchard, over the years. After often calling her the ‘true GM of the team’, he called her his ‘big sister’ after Sunday’s victory.
Moreover, the latter had left her place to go down to the locker room when the score was equal 3-3 in the third. She therefore missed the frenzied end of the match which led to Pier-Olivier Roy’s winning goal with 58.5 seconds to go.
“Patrick works so hard,” she said. The players obviously deserve a big chunk of the credit, but Patrick and everyone around the team work so hard. To see Patrick win is special. He wanted her, that one, and he kept saying it.”