Chapter 8: Of After Parties and Appendectomies

With the Stanley Cup back in the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, a new daughter at home, and another Conn Smythe trophy to his name, Patrick Roy was optimistic and on top of the world. There were quite a few interesting and funny anecdotes stemming from this cup win that leaked out days after the fact. One of the stranger ones was the Los Angeles Kings players talking about how during every one of their practice skates at the Forum during the finals, Roy would never fail to be there, sitting in the stands and watching them with a blank expression on his face. They could not understand why he would have done that so consistently.

Also, Wayne Gretzky would have been no doubt somewhat miffed to hear that Patrick was telling the press that he had just renamed his cats Janet and Wayne to commemorate the occasion. The icing on the cake, however, was at the Cup party at Patrick Roy’s house. The team was there, friends were there, and of course so was the Stanley Cup and her bodyguards.

Patrick Roy’s agent at the time, Pierre Lacroix, remembers being at that party. Both he and Patrick noticed that the Cup Guardians were being entertained by Patrick’s wife, Michele. Pierre didn’t think much of it until Patrick, grinning and with the Cup in his arms asked Pierre if he wanted to go down to the basement and have a “better look at the cup.” Not quite sure what to make of this, Pierre agreed.

Before he could comprehend what was going on, Patrick did the unthinkable.

` “I couldn’t believe it!” Lacroix said of the occasion, “He took a screwdriver and unscrewed the bottom! I thought he was going to take the whole thing apart.”

Unashamedly, Roy concurs with Lacroix’s story. “I just wanted to see what was inside,” he said. “But Pierre kept getting more and more impatient. I guess he thought I was going to keep going until we had all kinds of pieces, laying them on the work stand.”

Lacroix likened Patrick to a kid in a candy store, not so much maliciously taking the Cup apart so much as he was fiddling and tinkering with it, full of curiosity and wonder.

The party got a little out of hand though and by morning, a dazed and hungover group of revelers were shocked to see the Stanley Cup glittering from the bottom of the Roy’s swimming pool and she wasn’t in one piece. With a smile, Patrick recalls how people began shoving each other into the swimming pool and the Stanley Cup had “somehow” fallen in. When they retrieved it the first time, the bottom happened to fall off and caught in the moment, everyone tried scratching their initials on the inside. When that didn’t turn out as well as they would have liked, she was chucked back into the swimming pool.

During that summer, Roy signed a pricey contract complete with a no trade clause. “The most important thing,” Patrick said of the contract, “Is to have a chance to finish my career in Montreal.”

Montreal finished the 1993-94 season with a respectable 41-29-14 record. This time there was optimism for the Habs’ chances in the playoffs and in fact there was expectation.

The Canadiens’ first round opponents that year was one of their arch-rivals, the Boston Bruins. Games like these were always an attraction and a treat for fans on both sides. The teams split games one and two. It was after game two, however, that the unthinkable happened. Ever increasing stomach pains sent Patrick Roy to the hospital where he was quickly diagnosed with acute appendicitis.

The last thing Patrick wanted to hear about was surgery which would mean a three month recovery and an official end to his playoffs. The doctors agreed to dose him with heavy antibiotics and they put him to bed.

Pierre Lacroix remembers visiting Patrick in the hospital. “He was laying there, all hooked up to wires and tubes, tears in his eyes, telling me how much he wanted to play. I stopped and bought him a computer golf game. We started playing. We get to the 17^th hole, I’m up by two strokes. It’s a par-3 220 yard hole. Patrick selects his three wood and makes a hole in one. Well he lets out a scream like you can’t believe and he keeps on screaming. The guard comes rushing in. Everyone thought we were fighting or Patrick was dying. We’re laughing and there’s tears rolling down our faces.”

As much as he enjoyed playing video games, Patrick still didn’t want to be tied down to a hospital bed when his team was in the playoffs. He watched on tv as the Canadiens under the goalkeeping of backup Ron Tugnutt lost game three of the playoffs to the Bruins and that was as much as he could take. He asked the doctors if he could put off surgery for one more night.

Patrick talked of how he spent the night willing himself to heal and in the morning, when the doctors checked his blood they were amazed to see the bacteria level had plummeted and he seemed healthier. It was something unheard of to them.

Patrick wasted no time in escaping from the hospital and rejoining the team. He reasoned to himself that if he could go through a playoff series the previous year with an injured shoulder, then he could certainly cope with this pain.

“The pain was incredible,” Patrick remembers of that time, “I mean, I couldn’t even put on my pants. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.”

Both his wife and his teammates had to dress him and help him shower because of the intense pain he was going through. He had no mobility, and no relief from it, but as soon as his skates touched the ice, something different happened.

Patrick made 39 saves in a game four victory against the Bruins to tie them at two all, Patrick looking none the worse for wear on the ice. As soon as he got into the locker room, however, he was again crippled with pain. He was sent back to the hospital where he was giving another heavy dose of antibiotics and his blood was monitored. Amazingly, the bacteria count dropped and he was allowed to return to the team for game five. He was exhausted and dangerously sick by that time and he later said that it was the noise of the home crowd that invigorated and inspired him like nothing else. He made sixty saves in the game five win.

That was all the gas in the tank. The series went to seven games and the seriously ill Roy had done all he could. Boston eliminated the Canadiens. Patrick’s appendix was removed almost immediately after the series was over.

Patrick Roy still says that that game seven still haunts him. He keeps wondering how it would have been different if he could have just won it and they would have had some days rest before facing the New Jersey Devils in the second round. Of course, realistically speaking, there is no way that Roy’s appendix would have held out much longer.

In a way that was the beginning of the end for Patrick Roy’s marriage with the Montreal Canadiens, although no one would have dreamed of it at the time.