{"id":706701,"date":"2026-06-16T03:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706701\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T03:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:40:08","slug":"why-is-matt-roy-nicknamed-cat-rmnb-investigates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706701\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Matt Roy nicknamed \u2018Cat\u2019? RMNB investigates."},"content":{"rendered":"

RMNB learned something important while reporting on a hat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matt Roy\u2019s<\/a> nickname is, in fact, the \u201cCat.\u201d (RIP Dr. Seuss.)<\/p>\n

We made the discovery in early February when we found out that Aliaksei Protas<\/a> had gotten his teammates a Christmas present: customized Goorin Bros. eagle hats<\/a> featuring each player\u2019s team nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was your nickname on the hat from Aliaksei Protas?\u201d RMNB\u2019s Katie Adler asked Roy in the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cCat,\u201d the Capitals defenseman replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I ask why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a nickname I got for some reason,\u201d Roy said. \u201cI don\u2019t know the story behind it, so you\u2019ll have to ask \u2014 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know who started it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDowder,\u201d Roy said. \u201cSo you can ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the lowdown from Nic Dowd<\/a>, whose nickname of Judy is equally as ridiculous<\/a>, seemed like a simple enough task until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The team broke for nearly two weeks due to the NHL\u2019s Olympic Break. When they returned, the team\u2019s 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<\/a>. Not only were the Capitals distraught<\/a>, but we mourned the loss of a possible conclusion to this story until I remembered we had a friend in the media with Vegas.<\/p>\n

Enter: The Sin Bin Vegas\u2019s Ken Boehlke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boehlke, because he\u2019s a kind soul, agreed to broach the subject for us in the Golden Knights\u2019 locker room and finally got Dowd on the record on March 30 \u2014 though it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cA cat has a lot of secrets,\u201d Dowd told The Sin Bin. \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another dead end! (But please follow The Sin Bin Vegas everywhere<\/a> as a way to say thank you for their contribution to this story.)<\/p>\n

Roy\u2019s nickname continued to catch fire within the team as we chased Dowd for his non-answer answer 3,000 miles away via a proxy.<\/p>\n

Matt Roy arrives in the tunnel for warmups<\/p>\n

The dialogue goes like this (one of the players yelling has to be Connor McMichael<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Oh my GOD!<\/p>\n

WOAHHH!!<\/p>\n

The CAT!<\/p>\n

WOAH.<\/p>\n

MEOWWWW! (in a kitten voice)<\/p>\n

Roy: The Cat!<\/p>\n

The video concludes with Roy doing a cat claw double high-five with Ryan Leonard<\/a> and meowing himself.<\/p>\n

Matt Roy arrives in the tunnel ahead of his 500th career game<\/p>\n

Ahead of his milestone game, Roy was given a very enthusiastic greeting by Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cROYYYYYYYYY!\u201d McMichael screamed. \u201c500, man. Congrats, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMEOOOOOOOWWWW,\u201d Leonard shouted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMY NAME\u2019S ROY. MATT ROY,\u201d Tom Wilson, who seemed to be chirping the veteran defenseman for having two first names as a name, yelled. \u201cMATT ROY.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeard of him?\u201d Rasmus Sandin<\/a> replied.<\/p>\n

Matt Roy returns from injury<\/p>\n

When Roy completed rehabbing an injury and returned to the lineup, Alex Ovechkin<\/a> serenaded him with a special song, based on Eminem\u2019s Without Me<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cat,\u201d Ovechkin sang. \u201cGuess who\u2019s back, back again. Kitty\u2019s back. Tell a friend. Cat is back, cat is back, cat is back, cat is back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Roy gets a special shoutout from Spencer Carbery<\/p>\n

After a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery had some kind words for Roy during his post-game victory speech (at the 33-second mark).<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this guy was competing his f***ing balls off all night,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cMatt Roy was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the locker room erupted, Martin Fehervary<\/a> put out his cat claws, as did Roy. Then, like Jim Halpert from The Office, he found the camera and flashed a quizzical look.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really think \u2014 it comes from Dowder,\u201d Fehervary told us later as we continued to investigate. \u201cI don\u2019t really particularly know why or when. And then we just started calling him that. But one of the coaches is calling him \u2018Cowboy,\u2019 so I like that better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait, what? Which one of the coaches?<\/p>\n

\u201cScotty Allen,\u201d Fehervary replied. \u201cI like \u2018Cowboy\u2019 better than \u2018Cat.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Ethen Frank<\/a> replied when we queried him. \u201cI think it just kind of happened organically. Just, somebody did it, and then we all just ran with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then finally, a breakthrough, from an unexpected source.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh boy, I think it\u2019s not as complicated as you think,\u201d Capitals reserve defenseman Dylan McIlrath<\/a> said. \u201cI think it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is a Roy Cat? I wasn\u2019t familiar, so I turned to Google for clues, but even the internet didn\u2019t provide a clear answer about what Dowd is referring to.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a literal breed of cats called Roy Cats. But there is a character in Final Fantasy called \u201cRoy Cat,\u201d<\/a> who is a bartender at the end of the universe. On the science-fantasy world-building and storytelling project called Vanquera<\/a>, a \u201cRoy Cat\u201d is \u201ca large cat breed renowned for its soft, puffy fur.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what I\u2019m 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 \u201cRoy Cat\u201d for short. Dowd, a father of three, has a three-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Cordy Roy Cat<\/a>
byu\/w33b1t<\/a> inJellycatplush<\/a><\/p>\n

So in conclusion, Matt Roy\u2019s nickname is \u201cCat\u201d \u2014 except when it\u2019s \u201cCowboy\u201d \u2014 perhaps due to a stuffed toy.<\/p>\n

You might be saying to yourself, Now, Ian, this is an unsatisfying ending to an RMNB Investigates article<\/a>. 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\u2019s incredibly frivolous and unimportant.<\/p>\n

Just imagine the methods and discussions we have for the actual important stuff. We are professional hockey writers after all; we just don\u2019t take ourselves too seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RMNB learned something important while reporting on a hat. Matt Roy\u2019s nickname is, in fact, the \u201cCat.\u201d (RIP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-706701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}