Avalanche's Johnson: 'We loved playing for Patty'

The transition between coaches won't be an easy one for the Colorado Avalanche.

The club watched as Patrick Roy shocked the hockey world on Thursday, announcing he was leaving the team. The news was hard to take for players, especially defenseman Erik Johnson, who learned about the news after hitting the ice for practice.

"I was skating at the practice rink and when I got off the ice, [I] had a couple missed calls from [Roy] and I'm like, 'Oh god, I got traded, where am I going?'" Johnson said on Altitude Sports Radio 950, according to NHL.com.

"I guess you don't really think the news would be Patty stepping down, but I talked to him on the phone. He just said it was time for him to go and he didn't elaborate too much."

Roy had only spent three seasons as coach of the club, but in his time grew a strong rapport with his players who were saddened by his decision.

"I had a bunch of phone calls right after the news broke from different guys and everyone was super upset because of how much we loved playing for Patty and it's going to be tough for sure, it's going to be an adjustment," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, the players have to be [upset] at themselves. I mean, I'm mad at myself; I'm sure there are a ton of guys that are mad at themselves because if we played better and won, this wouldn't be happening.

"I don't want to share too much of the intricate details of what we talked about but from the players' perspective, myself and probably 90 percent of my teammates, which is a lot on any team because no coach is going to have everyone that loves him, but I can tell you that probably over 90 percent of the guys loved playing for Patty. We respected him, we thought he was a great coach and we'll all really miss him."

The onus now rests on general manager Joe Sakic, who must now quickly find a replacement coach for his young and talented club.

Related: Sakic: Avalanche will look outside team for new coach

As for Johnson, he feels there should be no shortage of candidates interested in the job.

"I would assume coaches would be falling over themselves to coach this team," Johnson said. "While we haven't gotten the results we've wanted over the past couple of years, the talent's there and if you look at our top three forwards, our defense, our goalie, there's a lot of upper echelon talent there and I think a lot of coaches would like to form it into a winning team, which I know we can be."