PR at its best

Yes, PR stands for Patrick Roy, but it also stands for Public Relations, and that's the one aspect of Roy's departure from Montreal that he was able to finally put to rest tonight at his jersey retirement ceremony.

He said many nice things during his speech, which, by the way, was written by a PR firm and given a final edit by his father and autobiographer Michel Roy, but the one that resonated with me the most was when he said this

"I will always remember the day I left too quickly, without saying goodbye the way I would have liked."

Roy has often said, and he said it again tonight in his press conference, that he turned the page on Dec. 2, 1995 a long time ago. But it was the way he left it with the fans - fans who cheered him in mockery that night 13 years ago, but who adored him otherwise - that left Roy with enormous regret.

And it was that regret he was able to put to rest during that ceremony.

"At least they know I didn't want to leave that way," Roy said afterwards. "Now they know I wanted to come back. Now they know I would have wanted to play my entire career with the Montreal Canadiens."

As one of those fans who felt so hurt when he left, and by the way it happened, it is indeed comforting to know that.