RMNB learned something important while reporting on a hat.
Matt Roy’s nickname is, in fact, the “Cat.” (RIP Dr. Seuss.)
We made the discovery in early February when we found out that Aliaksei Protas had gotten his teammates a Christmas present: customized Goorin Bros. eagle hats featuring each player’s team nickname.
“What was your nickname on the hat from Aliaksei Protas?” RMNB’s Katie Adler asked Roy in the locker room.
“Cat,” the Capitals defenseman replied.
“Can I ask why?”
“It’s just a nickname I got for some reason,” Roy said. “I don’t know the story behind it, so you’ll have to ask — ”
“Do you know who started it?”
“Dowder,” Roy said. “So you can ask him.”
Getting the lowdown from Nic Dowd, whose nickname of Judy is equally as ridiculous, seemed like a simple enough task until it wasn’t.
The team broke for nearly two weeks due to the NHL’s Olympic Break. When they returned, the team’s veteran fourth-line center was either not available in the locker room due to doing extra work on the ice, or we were chasing another story. Then the trade deadline approached in early March, and Dowd was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights. Not only were the Capitals distraught, but we mourned the loss of a possible conclusion to this story until I remembered we had a friend in the media with Vegas.
Enter: The Sin Bin Vegas’s Ken Boehlke.
Boehlke, because he’s a kind soul, agreed to broach the subject for us in the Golden Knights’ locker room and finally got Dowd on the record on March 30 — though it’s worth adding he missed him several days in a row due to the veteran forward doing extra work on the ice. Geez, this guy is a hard worker.
“A cat has a lot of secrets,” Dowd told The Sin Bin. “That’s all I can say.”
Another dead end! (But please follow The Sin Bin Vegas everywhere as a way to say thank you for their contribution to this story.)
Roy’s nickname continued to catch fire within the team as we chased Dowd for his non-answer answer 3,000 miles away via a proxy.
Matt Roy arrives in the tunnel for warmups
The dialogue goes like this (one of the players yelling has to be Connor McMichael):
Oh my GOD!
WOAHHH!!
The CAT!
WOAH.
MEOWWWW! (in a kitten voice)
Roy: The Cat!
The video concludes with Roy doing a cat claw double high-five with Ryan Leonard and meowing himself.
Matt Roy arrives in the tunnel ahead of his 500th career game
Ahead of his milestone game, Roy was given a very enthusiastic greeting by Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
“ROYYYYYYYYY!” McMichael screamed. “500, man. Congrats, Roy.”
“MEOOOOOOOWWWW,” Leonard shouted.
“MY NAME’S ROY. MATT ROY,” Tom Wilson, who seemed to be chirping the veteran defenseman for having two first names as a name, yelled. “MATT ROY.”
“Heard of him?” Rasmus Sandin replied.
Matt Roy returns from injury
When Roy completed rehabbing an injury and returned to the lineup, Alex Ovechkin serenaded him with a special song, based on Eminem’s Without Me.
“The Cat,” Ovechkin sang. “Guess who’s back, back again. Kitty’s back. Tell a friend. Cat is back, cat is back, cat is back, cat is back.”
Matt Roy gets a special shoutout from Spencer Carbery
After a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery had some kind words for Roy during his post-game victory speech (at the 33-second mark).
“I thought this guy was competing his f***ing balls off all night,” Carbery said. “Matt Roy was excellent.”
As the locker room erupted, Martin Fehervary put out his cat claws, as did Roy. Then, like Jim Halpert from The Office, he found the camera and flashed a quizzical look.
“I don’t really think — it comes from Dowder,” Fehervary told us later as we continued to investigate. “I don’t really particularly know why or when. And then we just started calling him that. But one of the coaches is calling him ‘Cowboy,’ so I like that better.”
Wait, what? Which one of the coaches?
“Scotty Allen,” Fehervary replied. “I like ‘Cowboy’ better than ‘Cat.'”
“I don’t know,” Ethen Frank replied when we queried him. “I think it just kind of happened organically. Just, somebody did it, and then we all just ran with it.”
And then finally, a breakthrough, from an unexpected source.
“Oh boy, I think it’s not as complicated as you think,” Capitals reserve defenseman Dylan McIlrath said. “I think it’s just Roy, Roy-Cat, and then it just became Cat. No rhyme or reason. Like all our locker room antics, it just gets elevated on game days. The screaming and the cat claws.”
So what is a Roy Cat? I wasn’t familiar, so I turned to Google for clues, but even the internet didn’t provide a clear answer about what Dowd is referring to.
There isn’t a literal breed of cats called Roy Cats. But there is a character in Final Fantasy called “Roy Cat,” who is a bartender at the end of the universe. On the science-fantasy world-building and storytelling project called Vanquera, a “Roy Cat” is “a large cat breed renowned for its soft, puffy fur.”
But what I’m guessing Dowd is referring to is a Jellycat stuffed animal. A few years ago, the company created a Cordy Roy Cat, a pink corduroy-style plush often nicknamed “Roy Cat” for short. Dowd, a father of three, has a three-year-old daughter.
So in conclusion, Matt Roy’s nickname is “Cat” — except when it’s “Cowboy” — perhaps due to a stuffed toy.
You might be saying to yourself, Now, Ian, this is an unsatisfying ending to an RMNB Investigates article. Why did I just spend five minutes reading this? And I would say: these are the extraordinary lengths we go to, to answer something that’s incredibly frivolous and unimportant.
Just imagine the methods and discussions we have for the actual important stuff. We are professional hockey writers after all; we just don’t take ourselves too seriously.
