Max Pacioretty participates in charity game, shows signs of full recovery –NHL offseason Update
Probably the biggest injuries during the last National Hockey League (NHL) regular season involved a young energetic player of Montreal Canadiens, Max Pacioretty, who was bashed into the sideboards by Boston Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara, which resulted in
a season-ending fractured vertebra.
It has been over four months since the hit, and Pacioretty without a doubt has been using the extra free time to not only recover, but become a much stronger and motivated person than he was before.
"I had a lot of time off since my injury, and now I'm just working on putting on muscle and trying to get as big and as fast as possible", Pacioretty said. "I've done a pretty good job of that so far and I hope to keep doing that through August".
Although Pacioretty has been skating for a few months now, Thursday’s Big Assist annual charity hockey game at Terry Conners Rink was his first participation in a competitive matchup since the injury, and he played much better than people would have expected.
"It felt … I don't know, I guess it just felt weird", Pacioretty said following the game. "It was weird at first, but as the game went on I think I felt a little more comfortable, and I'm looking forward now to gaining some momentum off of that".
During the game, the 22-year-old participated with players like Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay Lightning, and Matt Moulson of New York Islanders. Seeing the other big names at the event, there was not a bigger roar from the crowd, except when Pacioretty was
introduced as one of the participants.
The young left winger remained unable to participate in Montreal’s appearance in the 2011 NHL Playoffs, had he been there, most people are of the view that Canadiens certainly did have the capability to take the place of Boston Bruins.
Registering 24 points (14 goals, 10 assists) in only 37 games last season, the 22nd overall draft pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by Montreal, is expected to make a much bigger impact now having gained so much experience and wisdom from a life
threatening injury.
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