Patrick Roy resigns as Colorado Avalanche coach, Twitter reacts

Patrick Roy resigned from being the coach and vice president of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.

Last year Roy was critical of some of his pleyrs, including forward Matt Duchene who he criticized after he scored a goal in a game that the Avalanche lost. He said that not having enough say in the decisions that impact the team’s performance and philosophical differences and not being on the same page with the organization were the reasons that he stepped away, according to ESPN. Roy said that he has a lot of respect for Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic and the players and the organization.

"I have thought long and hard over the course of the summer about how I might improve this team to give it the depth it needs and bring it to a higher level,” Roy said in a statement. “To achieve this, the vision of the coach and VP-Hockey Operations needs to be perfectly aligned with that of the organization. He must also have a say in the decisions that impact the team's performance. These conditions are not currently met.”

Roy was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1984. He was traded to the Avalanche in 1995 and was there for eight seasons. After the 2002-03 season he retired with 551 wins and four Stanley Cup titles, two with the Canadiens and two with the Avalanche. In 2006 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Roy became the coach of the Avalanche in 2013. He led the Avalanche to the Central Division title in 2013-14 and won the Jack Adams Award as the League’s best coach. He was 130-92-24 in three seasons as the Avalanche coach, according to NHL.com. The Avalance were 39-39-4 and missed the playoffs last year.

The Avalanche will start looking for a new head coach immediately. People reacted to Roy leaving the Avalanche on Twitter.

{"code":"internal_server_error","message":"

There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>

Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}