Olivier Roy isn’t ready to assume the starting goaltending job with Team Canada is his to lose.
Perception is a slippery slope.
One team's starter is another team's backup. A team's ace in the hole could be another's diamond in the rough. One player's dream job could be another's job to lose. Perception, after all, is only a matter of opinion.
Perception is abounding in the days leading up to Hockey Canada's world junior selection camp. The most notable is that the starting goaltender's job is essentially Olivier Roy's to lose. As the only 1991-born goaltender at camp -- and the only one to receive an invitation to last year's selection camp, where he was cut -- Roy's handle on the starting duties seem to be the strongest.
But if the prevailing perception says the starting role is his to lose, Roy has a difference of opinion.
"I don't really know about that," Roy said. "The three other goalies (invited to camp) are really good -- really, really good goalies. I think they proved it this year and the year before.
"I'm going there to compete. I'm going there to show (Hockey Canada) I'm ready for the job. I want to be part of that team and that's going to be the message I'm going to try to send them when I get up there."
Roy has long been considered the best Canadian goaltending prospect in his age group. It's a reputation which began as a 16-year-old in Cape Breton where he turned heads as quickly and vigorously as he turned away pucks as a rookie.
Ondrej Pavelec, now a starter in Atlanta, had just graduated from junior hockey and left the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles with a monumental hole to fill. Few would have expected then that this confident, yet small Francophone drafted in the third round would provide the goods.
Roy not only earned the starting job then, but set several Québec Major Junior Hockey League records in the process. Among those are wins as a 16-year-old with 27 and shutouts with four. He also set the league's fourth-longest shutout streak at 167 minutes and 51 seconds.
Fast forward to present day and Roy maintains his same confident demeanor he showed as a rookie. He doesn't take anything for granted and soft-steps around issues that could otherwise prove fateful for an egomaniac.
Roy is the consummate pro when talking about his achievements. He deflects questions gracefully, constantly speaking in terms of "we" instead of "me."
There has been pressure this season in Bathurst. Any time a single player is acquired for a package of five draft picks -- two of which are first-rounders -- expectations are bound to be high.
Despite a surprising coaching change early, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan are in contention for the Maritimes Division crown early this season. Roy is delivering on the team's promise of a championship-calibre team, and couldn't care less at whose feet the accolades may fall.
"We just play as a team here," he explained. "I don't really play as myself and I don't see any other guys doing that so I think that's one reason we have some success."
Whether he wants to be noted for his individual performances or not, the truth is there has been room for improvement. The most notable misstep came in the first game of the Subway Super Series in November. Roy saved 12-of-15 shots through half a game's work.
His upbeat nature, however, allows him to look at the negatives the same way he does the positives -- either can be overrated.
"I'm the first one to know that we didn't have a really good game against the Russians," he said. "We gave up too many goals and I gave up too many goals. The positive thing is it's just one game.
"I know I can do better."
As he often made a habit of doing, Roy doesn't let the bad faze him. Bad games are often followed by great games, but consistency remains a work-in-progress. The key, Roy finds, is found in the old goaltender's mantra: never get too high when things are going well or too low when things are going bad.
"When I have a bad game I don't believe in changing everything, I just keep the same way and working hard," he said. "If you start changing your routine, that's when you're going to have a couple bad games in a row."
That's not to say the negatives are forgotten memories. Roy recalls the moment he was informed he would not be a member of last year's world junior team, calling it "probably one of the worst moments of my career."
But if that gives him something more to prove at this year's camp, Roy wasn't letting on.
"I'd say everyone has something to prove," he said.
Sometimes perception is everything.
