A glimpse into what makes Max Pacioretty tick
Canadiens’ sniper Max Pacioretty has dreams of holding up the Stanley Cup
For a guy with two hollow legs, Max Pacioretty is a terrific skater.
I sat with the Canadiens’ leading scorer for dinner and a wide-ranging talk this week, the night before the Habs faced the Nashville Predators, and was unsuccessful in a modest bid to keep pace with his knife and fork.
Pacioretty made short work of a gigantic tomato and mozzarella salad, then without breaking a sweat destroyed his thick, medium-rare New York strip steak.
Nearly two hours later, following a pass on dessert, his decaf cappuccino and a fascinating look into what makes him tick on and off the ice, we parted ways at the hotel elevator and he turned into the lobby gift shop. Probably for a snack. The Canadiens had practised earlier in the day in Brossard, then chartered in to Nashville. Pacioretty slept en route, physically spent from the practice and weary from a bit of a sleepless night, his 15-month-old son, son, Enzo, having bounced on the bed in the wee hours.
But Pacioretty was wearing his world-class appetite with his sweater and khakis as we strolled to a nice spot across from Bridgestone Arena, where he would be playing in 24 hours.
“Davey says he has to stop eating with me because he gains too much weight,” Pacioretty said with a laugh of his good friend and teammate David Desharnais.
(I would mention this to Desharnais after morning skate the next day and the reply would be just a shake of Davey’s head followed by … another shake of his head.)
“I’m spoiled because I’ve got the best chef at home to cook me healthy food, and a lot of it,” Pacioretty said of his wife, Katia, who has learned the best way to feed her husband is with a shovel.
He won’t hazard a guess as to the number of calories he consumes.
“But the other day for breakfast I had 12 pancakes, a couple sandwiches for lunch and seven tacos for dinner," he said. "At this point in the year, Katia is amazed by how much I eat. Earlier in the season she’d make that much food and expect leftovers, but I’m cleaning up my plate now. It’s crazy. She can’t believe it.”
Pacioretty weighs 214 pounds as the regular season heads into its home stretch, down just four pounds from the first day of training camp.
He says he’s strong physically and mentally near the end of this marathon, having played all 75 games this season, his eyes opened to the rigours of an NHL campaign that he’s played, for the first time in his career, without interruption.
“I’ve always had some kind of injury,” Pacioretty said, his well-catalogued medical chart by now an encyclopedia. “(Appendicitis) the lockout year, a hamstring last year, a couple things here and there (a broken neck being one of those “things”). But this is the first time it’s been a full season for me and I’m learning more and more as the years go on.”
He will matter-of-factly mention that he suffered a Grade 2 shoulder separation without knowing it during Team USA’s game against Russia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, finishing the match “perfectly fine with the adrenalin flowing until after the game when I realized, ‘Oh my God, my shoulder is killing me.’ ”
Pacioretty smiles when he says he believes the injury was from a check by Canadiens teammate Alexei Emelin.
“You don’t report injuries in the Olympics,” he said.
Everyone thought Pacioretty was a healthy scratch the next day against Slovenia. Uh, no.
“I was shot up every game the rest of the way after that,” he said, cleared by doctors to play three more Sochi games.
Pacioretty dismisses any thought that he’s tougher than most, given what he’s endured and rebounded from in what sometimes has seemed to be near-miraculous fashion.
“So many guys are hurt and just keep playing,” he said. “It’s almost kind of funny, what I’ve been through, but I hate to take the spotlight off what everyone does. There are SO many injuries that nobody has any idea about.”
Whether or not the Canadiens are playing in early June, he will not be at Katia’s side in Florida when she gives birth to their second child, a brother for Enzo.
So many guys are hurt and just keep playing. I hate to take the spotlight off what everyone does.
“I can’t be in the delivery room,” Pacioretty said, squeamish at the thought. “I can’t even see a cut on my own face.” Which in itself is hilarious. If his physical health is holding up, so too is the mental side of his game. Pacioretty arrived at training camp with a tougher hide and with a greater responsibility for leadership placed on him by general manager Marc Bergevin and head coach Michel Therrien.
“My mind is way better now with my family,” he said. “It’s much easier for me to forget about losses and missed opportunities.
“But at the same time, being a leader on this team, there are nights when I feel I could have done more and maybe l lose a couple hours sleep because of it. Still, it feels like a different stress on my mind. I’m more worried about the team’s success than my own.
“I’ve always wanted to win but it’s been to a whole new standard this year. I’ve had a lot of talks with the coaches about that and they hold me to a really high standard.
“I love that,” Pacioretty said. “At first I thought it might be too much. But being expected to be perfect every game brings the best out of you. Some people might see it as pressure and maybe I’ve looked at it like that before, but this year I see it as a challenge. It brings the best out of me.”
Pacioretty speaks at length about the excellent chemistry on this year’s Canadiens, about what it takes to be a good teammate. He discusses the lofty bar of expectation set with last season’s three-round playoff run.
He hears talk that he has all the qualities the Canadiens need for their next captain. He’s flattered by it but is not lobbying for the C, saying he’s merely one of many leaders on this team, with fellow alternate captains Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban, and influential veterans like Carey Price and Sergei Gonchar and every other player who is encouraged to say their piece when something is on their mind.
His admiration for and loyalty to Therrien is absolute.
“Our relationship is unbelievable,” Pacioretty said. “The fact that Mike demands so much from us elevates our game to a level where everybody’s having career years under him.
"Everyone who’s been here for the past three years has taken his game to a new level. This organization doesn’t let you get comfortable with your prior success, they’re always finding ways to bring your game to another level. They’ve done that for me and I’m thankful for that.
“(Therrien) gets the best out of every player just by being demanding. Once he knows you have the right intentions every single shift, obviously he gives you a little bit of leeway, but not much. He demands the most out of every player out there.”
And Pacioretty struggles to find suitable words of praise for Price.
“He’s on a whole other level,” he said. “It’s impossible to describe how good Carey is. It seems like he exceeds our expectations every night, but he’s never satisfied. That’s the kind of mindset you need to have that much success.”
Pacioretty is profoundly moved by the history of hockey in Montreal, now truly aware of what the game means to this city, and says that of all the Hall of Famers’ portraits around the dressing room, it’s the one of the late, legendary captain Jean Béliveau that captures his imagination the most.
“Mr. Béliveau is the model captain for anyone who’d want to be a captain in this league, especially for the Canadiens,” Pacioretty said.
He admits slyly that he had a team charity golf tournament souvenir draw rigged so he could win a photo of Béliveau that had caught his eye.
“I saw that photo and I needed to have it,” he said. “I know exactly where that picture is at home. I’m never going to touch it. It’s amazing. His signature is perfect.”
With seven games to play this regular season, Pacioretty is five goals from 40, which would be one better than last year’s career high. And he’s not even thinking about it.
“I know the fans get a lot of joy out of it, but I don’t feel that getting 40 is relevant at all beyond making them happy and giving them something to talk about,” he said.
“I’m just trying to do the best I can to help the team win, whether that’s to score goals on a certain night or play strong on the penalty-kill on another night.”
Coffee had arrived and the restaurant was filling up when I asked Pacioretty whether he’s ever fantasized about lifting the Stanley Cup. He grinned. “That’s all I ever think about. As a Rangers fan growing up, I saw them win it in 1994 and I thought it was cool that they had won a Cup. Then you come here and it’s 24. Twenty-four.
“I was thinking at the time, ‘I’ll probably win one before I retire,’ and then you see how hard it is. It’s by far the hardest trophy to win in sports: the grind of 82 games and then 7-game series.
“I just want to be in absolute pain, not able to feel my legs, just so exhausted — and lift the Cup. It’s got to be the biggest feeling of relief that you’ve ever had in your life. That’s what I want to feel.”
And then Pacioretty stopped for just an instant to allow the image to form in his mind.
“Can you imagine now what it would be like in Montreal? It would be legendary. There would be nothing like it.”