War of words

The Quebec-Montreal rivalry ashes are still hot.

Tuesday night, after Guillaume Latendresse scored his first NHL goal, Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts defeated the Rimouski Oceanic 9-3 and Patrick Roy was late for post-game press conference. When he finally showed up he declared that he was late because he had to make sure that it was really Guillaume Latendresse that scored the goal. This comment made the press members laugh loudly.

Yesterday after the Montreal Canadiens morning practice, Latendresse replied to the future NHL hall of famer by saying that he was deceived of such comments instead of congratulating him for his first NHL goal. He was deceived that Roy was trying to step on him instead of being happy for him. He also said that he would try to be the adult in all this and didn't add other comments on the subject. (ouch, the 19-year old telling the 41-year old Roy that he would be the adult.)

Speculations say that behind the Patrick Roy's comments is deception about the Habs keeping him on the roster instead of sending him back to juniors, where the Quebec Remparts could make a trade to acquire him and sell more tickets at the gate. The Quebec Remparts did in fact lose a few good 19-year olds to the NHL this season. (Radulov and Vlasic only to name two.)

Let's see if any of the two parts will add oil on the fire. One thing is sure: we miss the Quebec-Montreal rivalry and comments like those always revive the fire that once burned.