MONTREAL, QC. — Well that didn’t take long.

It’s well known that Patrick Roy was an intense player and a volatile junior coach.  Just how long would it take for his temper to erupt behind an NHL bench?  In his first game.

With Roys’ Colorado Avalanche team leading 6-0 late in the third period, Anaheim Duck defenseman Ben Lovejoy caught Av’s rookie Nathan MacKinnon with what appeared to be a knee-on-knee hit.  No penalty was called on the play. The temperature in the building and behind the Avalanche bench rose a few notches.

With just seven seconds left in the game the Ducks got a goal by Jakob Silfverberg ending a shutout bid by Semyon Varlamov.  On the ensuing faceoff a scrum began on the ice. At the same time, Roy began yelling at Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau. Tempers flared with Roy pushing a glass partition separating the benches towards Boudreau.  The partition was pushed back.

“I was not very happy. First of all, I mean, to see a defenseman knee our guy. I mean, that was a knee-on-knee hit. That should have been a penalty in my opinion, and I certainly didn’t like that. When it’s 6-0, I don’t think this game needs that type of cheap shot. But after that there was some talk from the coaches, I guess. But at the same time, what should I do? He put his fourth line on the ice. I’m not going to go with my first line. I went with my fourth line and, that’s it. I was matching all night long, by the way.” — Patrick Roy

Patrick Roy was assessed a game misconduct as the game ended.

Boudreau wasn’t very impressed by Roy’s behaviour.

“It was a little trip and maybe they should have called it, but they let it go because of the score. He was barking at me because I was yelling at him to quit yelling at our players. I didn’t notice it as much as I noticed it then. The last game we were in here [for a preseason game] it was a big thing by the referees telling him it’s going to be a long year if he’s going to be yelling at everyone like that. There was no need for it. He’s not 25 anymore; he’s watched every NHL game I’m sure since he retired. He played for some of the greatest coaches and even though he was in the net and didn’t hear a lot of them, I’m sure he knew what was going on.” — Bruce Boudreau

The game ended 6-1 with Roy securing his first NHL coaching win.

Watch the game highlights here: