Listening to media coverage of the Colorado Avalanche the past three seasons, you’d never guess the team was rife with young, marketable stars — well-spoken, engaging young men that should be notable for reasons other than being the perpetual targets of trade speculation. No matter how good players like Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog, and Nathan MacKinnon were, the Hall of Fame goalie on the bench, four-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Roy, was always going to outshine them.
You could see it in the camera interviews, read it in the coverage — for three years we we all stood in awe of one of the biggest personalities to ever play the game.