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Patrick Roy takes hilarious risk and Toronto Maple Leafs make him pay right away

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Dec 31 2024, 9:07 pm
Patrick Roy takes hilarious risk and Toronto Maple Leafs make him pay right away
Sportsnet

Patrick Roy is an innovator.

Sometimes for the betterment of his team, like when he started pulling his goalie with two minutes left in games 11 years ago, instead of the conventional one minute, when he was head coach of the Colorado Avalanche.

Now the bench boss of the New York Islanders, Roy tried something new against the Toronto Maple Leafs today. With a faceoff in his own end and just 42.3 seconds left on the clock, Roy pulled the Islanders goalie to get an extra attacker on the ice.

It backfired right away, with John Tavares scoring for the Maple Leafs scoring nine seconds later. The Islanders never touched the puck, and Toronto went on to win the game 3-1.

Even the Sportsnet announcers were perplexed.

“You ever see this?” asked Chris Cuthbert. “No, I don’t think so,” Craig Simpson replied.

Conventional wisdom would have been to pull the goalie after taking possession of the puck, given the location of the faceoff.

But Roy cares not for conventional wisdom.

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