Everyone loves some great trash-talking, and one of the best moments we’ve ever seen in that area came from Patrick Roy during the 1996 Western Conference semifinals.
Blackhawks forward Jeremy Roenick was upset after a triple-overtime loss to the Avalanche, and especially at an incident during the game where he felt the Blackhawks should have been given a penalty shot.
Roy told reporters that he would’ve stopped Roenick’s shot anyway, and he got an immediate jab back from Roenick.
“I like Patrick’s quote that he would’ve stopped me. I just want to know where he was in Game 3, probably getting his jock out of the rafters,” he said.
But Roy’s response was an all-timer. “I can’t hear what Jeremy says, because I’ve got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging my ears.”
But the comeback from Roy was actually so good that fans started questioning whether it was scripted or not. Several years later, Roy revealed the truth about the legendary quote.
“I can’t take credit for that,” Roy said at a Fan Forum at the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006, per The Denver Post.
Roy was on his way to the arena when longtime friend and teammate Mike Keane told Roy he had said something about his Stanley Cup ring plugging his ear during an earlier series.
Roy said Keane told him: “‘You have two Stanley Cup rings! I think that will be so much better. Tell them you have your Stanley Cup rings plugging your ears!’ That’s how it started. The only credit I have is that I won four. Some people will say guys are afraid to say things like that. But I guess I won four.”
Scripted or not, it was still a legendary quote from an iconic goalie!
Sign up to our newsletter, ‘The Greatest Hockey Stories Ever Told’
READ MORE: When Gordie Howe hilariously described Gretzky with the most 11 perfect words
