For Toronto Maple Leafs fans still tuning into the NHL playoffs, it's been a painful reminder of what could have been. Nicolas Roy, now thriving with the Colorado Avalanche, is putting up numbers that make his former coach, Craig Berube, look like he was working with a blindfold on.
The stats are hard to ignore. During his time in Toronto, Roy received the fewest offensive zone shift starts of his entire career. That's right—a player with clear offensive talent was consistently deployed in the defensive zone, like a luxury sports car used only for grocery runs.
Social media is buzzing with frustrated Leafs fans sharing charts that show a glaring disconnect. Roy's usage in Toronto bears no resemblance to the rest of his NHL career. While some of that comes down to team lineup dynamics—if you're a good defender and a gifted scorer, you might get stuck with shutdown duties—the contrast is still staggering.
Berube may have thought he was onto something, but the experiment backfired. Roy was shipped out of town quickly, and now he's making the Avalanche look even more dangerous. For Leafs fans already smarting from missing the playoffs, watching Roy shine in Colorado is like salt in an open wound.
The lesson here? Sometimes, the best way to use a weapon is to let it fire.
