Patrick Roy's 5 unforgettable moments as Avalanche coach

Patrick Roy dropped a bombshell on Thursday, announcing he was stepping down as the head coach and vice president of hockey operations with the Colorado Avalanche.

Related: Patrick Roy announces he's leaving Avalanche

After three seasons as the club's bench boss, Roy walked away - even after saying he wouldn't back in April - stating that he lacked decision-making power.

While Roy's stint with the club was short, it certainly was memorable.

The Hall of Fame goaltender, who previously spent eight seasons with the team during his playing days, brought the same passion and flare that he did on the ice with him behind the bench.

Here are the five moments we will never forget:

Nearly pushing glass over

Roy's first day on the job was one to remember.

Following the conclusion of his first game with the Avalanche - a 6-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks - the 50-year-old got in a war of words with fellow coach Bruce Boudreau.

The incident then saw Roy nearly push the glass separating both benches over. He proved very quickly that his fiery personality was still intact and that he was not intimidated by his more experienced coaching peers.

Losing temper after Jets goal

Once again his temper always made for good television.

This past February, Roy threw another fit after he felt a goal scored by Winnipeg Jets forward Drew Stafford should have been called off after Andrew Ladd appeared to make contact with goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

After challenging the call, it was upheld by the refs and this ensued:

Pulling goalie with 12 minutes to play

If it's not his hot head that will go down in history, it could be his unique game plan.

Quickly into his tenure as head coach, Roy proved that there is no wrong time to pull the goalie. On several occasions, with his team down, Roy would pull the goalie with more than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

In fact sometimes it even worked:

Calling out Duchene

During his time as head coach, Roy proved he was also fearless when it came to calling out his players.

He did so to Varlamov on several occasions, but most notably was this season when he called out Matt Duchene after the forward celebrated his 30th goal of the season with his team still down 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues.

"The thing I have a bit of a hard time with is the reaction of (Duchene) after he scores."

"It's a 4-0 goal. Big cheer. Are you kidding me? What is that? It's not the (reflection) that we want from our guys. Not at all."

Duchene appeared to get the message.

Leading club to division-win

Roy's first season as coach could not have gone much better.

The rookie bench-boss jumped into the fire with a struggling franchise and took them nearly as high as they could go.

Colorado concluded the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season with a dismal 16-25-7 record, good enough for last place in the Western Conference and second last in the NHL.

Enter Roy and under the new coach the team saw a 73-point improvement in his first season in 2013-14. The club saw its goals per game go from 2.38 to 2.99, and their goals against per game go from 3.13 to 2.63.

Averaged over 82 games means the club scored 50 more goals and allowed 40 less, not too shabby.

The club captured their first division title since the 2002-03 season and ended their three-year playoff hiatus - ultimately bowing out in seven games in the first round - taking a drastic step forward in player and team development.