Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Roy chasing record, wants undefeated Avs to ‘stay humble’

Patrick Roy

Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy smiles as he takes questions after the Avalanche’s 6-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in a hockey game in Denver on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

AP

With six wins in six games, the Colorado Avalanche are flying high to start the 2013-14 campaign.

But their head coach wants them to keep it in perspective.

That’s what Patrick Roy said prior to Thursday’s big tilt against Detroit, as the Avs look to extend their winning streak while Roy looks to surpass his former coach, Mario Tremblay, for the NHL record for wins to begin a coaching career.

“I’m saying to the players every day, let’s stay humble,” Roy said, as per NHL.com. “We want them to be humble, we want them to take it one day at a time.”

The talk might be about humility, but there’s no ignoring how big a win against the Wings would be. The irony of potentially passing Tremblay is not lost on Roy, or his players.

Tremblay set the coaching record -- starting his career in Montreal a perfect 6-0-0 -- at the beginning of the 1995-96 campaign. Later that season, Roy said he’d never play another game for the Canadiens in the midst of an 11-1 defeat to the Red Wings.

Four days after saying it, Roy’s prediction held true -- he was shipped to Colorado, where he’d go on to win two Stanley Cups. Now, he’s back with the Avs, leading the team to one of the best starts in franchise history.

The Avalanche players know all the history on the line, and are keen to get their head coach the record.

“It’d be great,” Matt Duchene said of Roy matching the mark. “He’d have that record over Tremblay, which is pretty funny, very ironic.

“It’d be great to get it done for him. For ourselves too. It’d be great to go to 7-0.”