Wayne Gretzky's Ghost by Roy Macgregor Page B

the early favourites for the Conn Smythe. But that too is only part of it.
    At thirty-five, Roy has reached that time of his life when the legacy is cemented. This was the season when, in an Avalanche uniform, he surpassed Terry Sawchuk to become the winningest goaltender in NHL history. He was already the winningest goalie in playoff history, but this spring added most playoff shutouts (eighteen and, perhaps, counting) to that record and, heading into tonight’s Game 2 against the New Jersey Devils, stands within reach of a few others:
    A victory tonight and Roy would tie another Hall-of-Famer, Montreal’s Ken Dryden, for the most consecutive wins in final playoff series: eleven.
    Sixteen minutes and eleven seconds without a goal being scored by New Jersey and Roy would slip past Clint Benedict for the longest shutout streak in finals play. Benedict did it with the 1923 Ottawa Senators and extended it with the 1926 Montreal Maroons. Roy hasn’t been scored on in finals play since the first period of Game 3 against the Florida Panthers, way back on June 8, 1996.
    He cannot even remember who it was that beat him (it was Rob Niedermayer). He will not predict when it will happen next. “There’s no rush,” he says.
    It has already been a fascinating spring for Roy. He was, early on, thought to be a problem for the Avalanche, an aging goaltenderwho had lost his edge, particularly after an opening game loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Round 2. The early criticism was, at times, as strong as the recent praise. “You’re not amused by that,” he says, “but you have no control over that, so you just try to remain focused. I always believed things would turn around.”
    In a way, the entire season has been like this for Roy. In the fall, he was embroiled in a domestic dispute in which charges were eventually dropped. Today, what debate there is around Roy has died down to speculation as to where he would be playing next year and whether or not he would be considered for the Canadian Olympic Team headed for Salt Lake City in early 2002.
    Roy is in the final year of a contract that pays him $7.5 million a year and will become a free agent this summer. Had his inconsistencies not improved, he might have been headed for his third NHL team. Should Colorado win another, the pressure will be on to keep him. Pressure is also suddenly building to include him on the Olympic squad, though it was Roy who allowed the critical goal in the 1998 shootout against the Czech Republic and Roy again who played somewhat listlessly as Canada came up short against Finland in the bronze medal game.
    But the good sense in waiting until the final moment to name the Canadian goaltenders is somewhat apparent this week as New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur looked rather ordinary in Game 1, while Roy sparkled when necessary. It may be that the same three goaltenders from Nagano will be headed for Salt Lake—Roy, Brodeur and Toronto’s Curtis Joseph—with the current “money goalie” the choice to start. And so far, neither of the others have proved to be the money goaltender that Roy so undeniably can be.
    â€œIt’s something that I haven’t thought about, to be honest with you,” he says of the Olympic possibility. “It’s something that I don’t want to think about. I have no control over their selection. The only thing I can control is what’s going on right now.”
    And that, for the moment, is the Devils’ attack, which surely will not be as unimpressive from here on out as it was in Game 1.One NHL coach says that the Devils need to rattle Roy more by making him play the puck behind his net as much as possible. Roy is, by nature, so obsessively competitive, says the coach, that he will not be able to resist going one-on-one against Brodeur, who Roy concedes is the best puck-handling goaltender in the game. “Patrick,” says the coach, “can get out of