On Not Criticizing The Penalty Kill
“It’s hard for me to go after — you know, PK was No. 1 in the league — and I’m going to go out there and bash the PK? I mean, come on. These guys have blocked a lot of shots; these guys have been very good. Unfortunately they had a tough night.”
Roy’s right. There’s no reason why he should stand up at that post-game podium and bash the team because of their performance on the penalty kill; they’ve been one of the league’s best for the last year and a half.
But that doesn’t mean he should defend it, either.
The fact of the matter is that if the Avalanche aren’t winning games, then they’re not doing anything well enough. You can’t afford to give up three goals on the power play — ever. You can feel as good as you want about your five-on-five play, but at the end of the day, the Avs lost.
I think what’s making fans angry is that it doesn’t seem like Roy is holding his team accountable; when they do something poorly, he praises what they did right. Now, maybe he’s speaking a different tone inside team meetings and during practice, but that doesn’t change the fact that fans want answers, too.
