The Roy Report: Scoring, defense, goaltending and preparing for a win streak

Welcome to the Roy Report! Every Wednesday, Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy peels back the curtain on the team during an in-depth radio interview on FM 104.3 The Fan. Even if you missed it, BSN Denver has your back, providing both a recap and analysis to keep you up to speed.

1. Play of the Week – Matt Duchene’s goal – his 13th – against New Jersey Devils goaltender Cory Schneider.

Coach Patrick Roy sees forward Matt Duchene playing with a lot of confidence and isn’t trying to be perfect all the time.

2. Matt Duchene’s scoring tear

– Coach Roy believes since he put Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, and Gabriel Landeskog together, they have been clicking really well and playing with a lot of speed. Last night was one of the first nights they didn’t possess the puck more than the other team. He’s very happy with the three of them as every game they are dangerous, they eat a lot of minutes, make good plays, and control the game.

Duchene seems to be the one who benefits the most for the line combination– he’s around the net a lot. MacKinnon is also playing good hockey and skating well. Roy described team captain Landeskog as a force on the ice- going hard, playing as power forward, making room for them. Roy mentioned that as a coach he wondered if he should spread them out but decided to let them play their game, and dominate the game, and play a lot of minutes.

3. Not trying to be perfect

– Patrick thinks the team has been doing a much better job not trying to be perfect and just take shots for about 11 games, since Calgary. He offered that in nine of the last 11 games, the team scored 3 goals or more. With that much goal scoring they should have a better record. The Avalanche now rank 7th in NHL for throwing pucks at the net which he sees as a positive sign. Shots for and against are about even. At one point, they were five or six below. Turning that around indicates how many nights they increased their shots recently.

4. What’s keeping the team from putting together a 6-7 game winning streak?

– “I think we all know the answer”, Roy stated, implying goaltending and/or defense are the culprits. The team has been working hard on defense. He thinks guys are doing “ok” defending. He emphasized they need better goaltending so they have a better chance to win. Reto Berra played a good game last night, Roy added, saying it was simple and he made key saves. Roy also pointed out they won 2-1, which they haven’t done much this year. Then he reiterated that good teams need a goalie to be dominant night after night.

5. Does better defense help goaltending, or does better goaltending help improve defense?

– Coach responded, “I think Varly could play better”. Semyon Varlamov sits at 5-7-1 record, with a goals against average of 3.28 and a save percentage of .887. Roy pointed out Varlamov was lucky to be 5-7 with those numbers and added they show the team scored goals to get those wins. Roy compared Varlamov’s statistics to Reto who is 5-7 with a .923 save percentage, stating the team didn’t score as much early in the season when Reto was playing. Roy said the team needs Varly to make more saves and play with confidence he believes that will significantly help their defense.

“I think we all know we don’t have the best defense in the NHL,” Roy commented. He admitted they aren’t the best team defending and added he included defenseman and forwards in that evaluation. They rely on their goaltending like a lot of other teams and stated Varly needs to be one of their best players, at least a core player in order for us to win consistently.

6. Who is the number one goalie?

– Varlamov. He will play tomorrow. Roy stated he has lots of confidence in him. Roy also added it wasn’t always easy for him either when he played as he had seasons which he did not play as well. Patrick considers it his job to try to find a way to get Varly going, just like they did with Duchene early in the season. If Varly gets going, they know they are going to be dangerous from now on.

7. How long can you wait for Varlamov to find his confidence and still stay in contention?

– Roy said there are signs he considers important, the first being the willingness to work hard. Varly works hard, he’s not happy, and his intentions are good, the coach added. He also said it would be different if Varlamov weren’t working hard. Patrick believes they just need to rebuild the confidence and tweak a thing or two in Varly’s technique. The focus is on how can they get him back, not expecting him to perform like two years ago, but help him become a difference maker night after night.

8. Are you just trying to survive the long road stretches right now?

– Not really. They are only trying to play well night after night, and focus on one game at a time. Roy believes they are playing some really good hockey right now and they played well against Ottawa and Islanders. Playing the Islanders, five on five, they only gave them nine scoring chances while the Avalanche had 11; the Islanders’ power play hurt them. Roy wants the team to be “even keel”, something they did well two years ago. His plan is to take one game at a time, not think too far ahead, and just climb the standings.

9. Since you’ll be facing the New York Rangers, can you tell us why their goaltender – Henrik Lundquist – is elite?

– He plays with a lot of confidence. He is sound in his net, doesn’t challenge too high, and is in his comfort zone with positioning himself well. They also have good defense. Their defensive corps is pretty solid and he benefits from them as well. His reads are really good and he is forcing the other team to make great shots in order to beat him. Roy thinks that’s a quality of great goaltending.

10. How much weight do you give to needing to be in the playoff mix at Thanksgiving in order to make the postseason?

– The team needs to get on a roll at some point and to win a lot of games in a row if they want to get back in it, Roy added they are all aware of that. But how does the team do that? By taking one game at a time. The players mindsets have shifted. Early on, if they gave up a goal, they lost focus which impacted our game. Now, if they give up a goal, they keep pressing, playing their game, and don’t worry too much. If down by two goals, they keep playing hard. Those are good signs in Roy’s opinion.

11. How do you see Mikhail Grigorenko’s role and where are you going to play him?

– “Good question,” Patrick answered, adding that he likes the way Grigorenko is playing. He has an unbelievable hockey IQ and Roy likes the way he sees the ice. He thinks Grigorenko deserves a chance to play on the third line center and is competing better. Tim Army is working with Grigs to protect the puck more and his puck protection has improved. While he doesn’t have the top end speed, he’s having good puck protection making good plays. Roy is interested in putting Alex Tanguay with him – if Tanguay’s healthy enough to play – the next game, and Jarome Iginla.

Roy is considering having Mitchell play with Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau. He likes Mitchell playing on the wing with Soderberg and Comeau because Soderberg struggles on faceoffs. Then Mitchell could help him on the left side and Blake could help him on the right side. Carl’s defending well against top lines and especially defensively. Roy said he expose him big time as Soderberg is the guy he plays mostly against the top lines.

Patrick added that against the New Jersey Devils first line he played him most of the time and did the same thing against Tavares with the Islanders. Roy also added that he uses him a lot in the Av’s zone. The coach stated Soderberg’s statistics are misleading because Soderberg starts a lot of faceoffs in their own zone. He’s playing a lot of minutes against top lines so it’s tougher for him with the plus/minus to be on the chart. Compare that with nearly every time in the offensive zone, Roy says he goes with MacKinnon’s line, regardless of the other team’s line up as he wants them to be in the offensive zone. The coach said he has the “luxury” to have a guy like Soderberg and he likes keeping the line as is for now.

Follow up question – Do you feel like Soderberg has lived up to his contract?

– Roy responded that he likes his size. They were looking for a big center to play against top lines and he think he has been doing a very good job for the Avalanche.

12. How will you spend your free day in New York?

– He said he was going to walk on the street for sure, go shopping, but then he likes to relax and enjoy himself.

13. Is it still special to play in the Garden?

– Roy answered that it’s very special as his first playoffs in the third round was against the Rangers and he had some good games there. Probably one of the best games of his career came in his first postseason, playing game three in Madison Square Gardens of the third round, when he beat them in overtime. Claude Lemieux scored the overtime goal to give them a 3-0 lead in the series. He has great memories of Madison Square Garden as it’s always fun and smells “hockey”.

He added that he liked to be in NY for 3-4 days, and then he’s happy to leave. Roy is looking forward to being back in Colorado for a bit after this trip. But it’s not going to be that long because they are going on the road again playing Chicago, St. Louis, and Nashville.

14. Avalanche/Devils in 2001, game six, Stanley Cup Finals

– When asked about that game, Roy relayed he had made a terrible mistake in game 4, and when they were up 2-1, and he went back in his net and the puck just jumped over his stick and came back, New Jersey tied the game, and then they scored shortly thereafter to make it a 3-2 game.

When the Avalanche headed back home, they were a bit shaky. They lost game 5. Roy remember being on the plane and saying to Ray (Bourque), “give me a chance, I am going to give you a good start, make sure you talk to the guys, tell them”, and Ray came and gave probably the best speech of his career. The Avs had a slow start in the game, but the confidence came back. Adam Foote scored a late goal at the end of the first period and gave them a one nothing lead. Then they went on to win 4-0 and came home for game seven. The energy on the plane coming back to play game 7 and a chance to win the Stanley Cup in a game 7 in front of their fans, Roy said it doesn’t get better than that.

15. Is Forsberg going to be there?

– Coach Roy had just heard Peter Forsberg would be in New York and is looking forward to seeing him.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Does it get any better than hearing Patrick Roy share stories from his playing days? Have to love his fierce competitive streak and it’s good to hear it’s alive and well. Hopefully he can coach the same commitment into all of his players.

2. The “nines” line will be staying together for awhile.

3. Grigorenko is continuing to improve. The news sounds promising for Tanguay and it will be interesting to see what the Tanguay, Grigorenko, Iginla line will look like.

4. Soderberg is earning his keep and Roy trusts his defensive skills. It can be easy to forget there is more to the center position than scoring goals but the coach doesn’t seem to overlook the value of good defensive play in the forward lines. The statistics like plus/minus tell an incomplete story and inaccurately reflect Soderberg’s value to the team.

5. Goaltending is a concern but Roy seems to be encouraging Varlamov to find his game and rediscover his confidence, just like Duchene overcame his scoring slump.

6. Everyone is well aware the Avalanche don’t have the best defense in the NHL. Roy recognizes some of that responsibility falls to the forwards as well as the defensemen and goaltender. It will be interesting to see how things progress on that front.