A window into brilliance

After all the wishing, hoping and praying (apologies to Dusty Springfield) from Boston, Montreal and Denver; the anxiety openly displayed by his family; the anticipation of hockey people everywhere; and the end of the last game of his 22nd NHL season (and very possibly, a career which touched four calendar decades), Ray Bourque finally touched Lord Stanley's Cup as a champion.

When Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic declined to lift the celebrated trophy after receiving it from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, everyone in Denver's Pepsi Center knew where the Cup was headed and restrained their vocal chords for a few more seconds.

Then it happened. The man who had pursued this dream and stalked this moment for more than half of his entire life finally lived it, 22 seasons and 1,827 games later. That electrifying moment when Bourque first touched the Cup, the source and summit of extremes that spanned the emotional spectrum, will forever stand as a special moment in the annals of sports. Rarely has the presentation or acceptance of a championship trophy encountered such an outpouring of joy upon one person. Fairy tales still get written in the world of sports -- Ray Bourque discovered that during his ultimate Rocky Mountain High last Saturday night.

But now that the smoke has cleared and Bourque has reached the mountaintop, cerebral analysis -- no longer immersed in the emotions of the moment -- dictates that Bourque's glory would not have been realized without Patrick Roy's stellar goaltending.

All Roy did was stand on his head in the defining first period of Game 6, when a go-ahead goal by the New Jersey Devils very probably would have buried Colorado in an Avalanche of momentum from their opponents, who feed off goals and, by contrast, are vulnerable to momentum stoppers.

Roy stopped all the momentum New Jersey had in the telling portions of Games 6 and 7, and for that, he received his third Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL Playoff MVP.

Roy also became one of a select few goalies to win two Stanley Cups with two different teams. He bounced back from his Game 4 gaffe. He erased the memory of consecutive Game 7 losses to the Dallas Stars in the previous two Western Conference Finals. He cemented his teammates' belief in him, and he reaffirmed his greatness as a goalie.

So much has been written about Roy, who -- along with Bourque -- was the centerpiece of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals. Among everything that has been mentioned, however, one fact about Roy's career stands above all others and shines a light on the extent of his brilliance throughout the entirety of his career.

Roy's four Stanley Cups have been spread out over a long amount of time, and with appreciably long gaps between individual championships: 1986, 1993, 1996, and 2001. Fifteen years ago, Roy won a Stanley Cup. Saturday night, there was Roy winning the treasured trophy once more.

Each of Roy's four titles carries with it a special accomplishment and adds yet another dimension to one of those rare careers that was great when it began, great in the middle, and great in the end.

In '86, a 20-year-old Roy took home the Stanley Cup for the Montreal Canadians against the Calgary Flames. For a 20-year-old to perform at peak level in a world championship series speaks for itself.

In '93, all Roy did was win three straight overtime games in the Cup finals against the Los Angeles Kings, two of them on the road. Facing the most pressure-packed situation imaginable in hockey while performing at the most demanding position the sport has to offer, Roy never blinked in three straight overtime contests, enabling Les Habitants to win yet another Stanley Cup.

In 1996, Roy clinched the Cup by stopping all 61 shots he faced in a triple-overtime 1-0 win over the Florida Panthers, one of the great title-clinching performances in any sport, let alone the illustrious history of the Stanley Cup Finals themselves. Building off the legacy established by his 1993 overtime tour, Roy proved yet again to the hockey world that once he got control of a series, he'd be hard to ultimately beat.

And now 2001. Two shutouts against a potent New Jersey team. Key momentum-stopping saves. Immeasurable confidence that filtered throughout his team, especially when the Avalanche were down. Money performances in each elimination game, including a Game 7. At age 35, Roy still has his share of embarrassing moments, but no one makes up for it more than he does. When not wandering away from the net, Patrick Roy is as good as it gets in hockey.

To put Roy's consistently great longevity in perspective, simply consider that Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, who grew up idolizing Roy in Montreal, was thoroughly outplayed by Roy in this series. At a time when the younger heir apparent was poised to replace the older king, the reigning monarch reasserted his command of the hockey kingdom. Just like Bourque's magical ending, the course of events doesn't always unfold in such a manner. It did for Roy.

He has more than his share of cockiness, and he did have a nasty domestic incident with his wife, Michelle, last year. While he needs to repair a number of elements in his personal life, nothing will ever make a dent in the reputation of Patrick Roy as a professional goaltender in the National Hockey League. His career, in its scope, consistency and longevity (among other things), places Roy in the rarified air of... well... Colorado--and just a handful of hockey players who have transcended mere greatness in their lives on the ice.