from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

During his French media scrum Thursday, Patrick Roy's face lit up when asked about his blue-line corps.

There seemed to be genuine excitement in his eyes.

"Yes," Roy said Thursday morning at the Bell Centre when asked if that was indeed the case.

You see, where everyone else around the hockey world sees Colorado’s soft underbelly, the reigning Jack Adams Award winner sees a group that’s very much under the radar.

"Tyson [Barrie] had a really good second half of the season," began Roy. "He was outstanding. When we lost him [against] Minny in the playoffs that was a really big loss for us. Nick Holden, same thing, what a year he had for us. E.J. [Erik Johnson] is an important part of it, it’s a group that’s been learning. [Jan] Hejda and Brad Stuart will bring a lot of experience and help our young guys."

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