Patrick Roy “won’t lie to you.” He “was looking more at the standings last year than this year.”
Can you blame him?
For Colorado’s head coach, last year’s standings were enjoyable to look at. This year? Not so much.
Another thing Roy doesn’t want to look at? The Avalanche’s schedule. He wants his players’ focus on the present, not the road they’ll have to travel in the future.
“I don’t even remember who we play the next game,” Roy said this morning (video below). “We play Washington tonight, we want to focus on Washington.”
Roy actually does know who the Avs play next; it’s the Hurricanes on Saturday. But tonight he wants “all our energy” on Washington, and Carolina “will be another day.”
It’s hard to blame him there either. The Avs (6-8-5) enter tonight’s home game against the Caps in 12th place in the Western Conference, five points back of a playoff spot. Suffice to say, a team could easily get distracted and/or discouraged by dwelling on such a situation, and what it’s going to take to get out of it.