PACIORETTY TAKES PRIDE IN BEING AN NHL IRON MAN
Expect captain to be on the ice Thursday despite ‘maintenance day’ at practice
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty absolutely hates to miss a game, so it would be a surprise if he’s not in the lineup Thursday at the Bell Centre against the Arizona Coyotes.
Pacioretty missed practice Wednesday in Brossard, taking what the team called a “therapy day.” Pacioretty limped off the ice and went to the locker-room at one point during the third period of Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, but returned to finish the game and had a team-high seven shots.
“It’s called a maintenance day, so that’s basically what it is,” coach Claude Julien said after practice when asked about Pacioretty. “Is there any reason for concern? Not to my knowledge. As we speak right now, it’s been a maintenance day.”
The injury bug has hit the Canadiens hard recently with goalies Carey Price (lower body), Al Montoya (concussion) and forward Artturi Lehkonen (lower body) all out indefinitely. Forward Nikita Scherbak is recovering from knee surgery and Ales Hemsky still has concussion-like symptoms. Defenceman David Schlemko has yet to play this season after hand surgery.
With Price and Montoya both out, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin claimed Antti Niemi on waivers Tuesday from the Florida Panthers and the veteran goalie practised for the first time with his new team Wednesday in Brossard. Julien confirmed after practice Charlie Lindgren will make his sixth straight start in goal Thursday against the Coyotes (7:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690) with Niemi as his backup.
Pacioretty has missed only three games during the last three seasons and has shown remarkable recovery abilities when he has been hurt in the past, going back to when it looked like his career might be in jeopardy after suffering a fractured vertebra and concussion when the Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara drove him into a Bell Centre stanchion.
After Price announced Tuesday that his injury wasn’t getting any better, one Canadiens fan tweeted that it’s too bad the goalie doesn’t have Pacioretty’s Wolverine recovery power, referring to the X-Men superhero of Marvel Comics lore who has a mutant healing factor.
“I hate that because it was blown so much out of proportion,” Pacioretty said after Tuesday’s morning skate about his recovery power. “You never want to miss a game ... in my mind, that always was the case. I never envisioned myself playing in the NHL, really, so to take even one game off, I sit at home and I’m like: ‘I could have played or I could have done this.’ I think it’s more of that than anything. But at the same time, you learn as the years go on how to help your body heal through nutrition, through different types of treatment. Everyone reacts differently to different stuff.
“I didn’t like when that stuff was being said because we all put in the work, we all work hard, we all work out, we all get treatment, we all do the right thing. So to say that I was healing quicker than other people, I don’t really believe in that. I just think maybe someone started that and it got magnified.”
Let’s rewind the audio tape of the interview here. Pacioretty never envisioned himself playing in the NHL?
“Hockey wasn’t big where I grew up and I was always the smallest kid on my team until, I think, 15 or 16 years old,” said Pacioretty, who grew up in New Canaan, Conn. “I grew like seven inches and put on like 100 pounds in two years. Once that happened and I went to the USHL (United States Hockey League), after that my dad was like: ‘Maybe you’ll get drafted,’ and it kind of took off from there. So I never even thought about playing in the NHL.”
Pacioretty played one junior season for the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers in 2006-07, posting 21-42-63 totals in 60 games along with 119 penalty minutes and a plus-20 rating. The Canadiens selected him in the first round (22nd overall) at the 2007 draft.
Pacioretty said the fact he never thought he’d play in the NHL is one of the reasons he’s so hard on himself when he doesn’t play well. The day after a 5-1 loss in Los Angeles last month, Pacioretty said: “How am I going to go tell my teammates that we got to be better when I’m the worst one on the ice?”
Pacioretty has 7-5-12 totals this season and is on pace for his fifth straight season with at least 30 goals.
“These are the best years of our lives and giving up opportunities or wasting games where your effort’s not there or you don’t feel like you played well is unacceptable in my mind,” Pacioretty said Tuesday morning. “I feel it’s just a luxury to play in this league and even more so to put on this jersey. So that’s just always been my mindset.”
You can expect to see Pacioretty in the lineup Thursday night.