Music: {allcanada} PACIORETTY WON'T SKATE UNTIL JULY

Monday, June 18, 2012

{allcanada} PACIORETTY WON'T SKATE UNTIL JULY

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The Montreal Gazette recalls Max Pacioretty skated last summer – day after day after day.

Recovering to full strength from a fractured vertebra and severe concussion that ended his 2010-11 season 22 games early, the Canadiens forward made up for lost time on ice, and then some.

"I took so much time off with my injury (15 regular-season games and seven in the playoffs), and I was so concerned about my head, that I just wanted to skate as much as possible," Pacioretty said from his home in Connecticut.

"It caught up with me a couple times during the year."

You'd not have known it, the 23-year-old enjoying a breakthrough season with a career-high 33 goals and a team-high 65 points.

In so doing, Pacioretty emphatically dismissed any fears about his post-injury durability, the only three games he missed in 2011-12 the result of a suspension. But still, he believes his ferocious offseason skating regimen took a toll, so he's come up with a fail-safe solution to keep from overtraining on ice this summer.

"I'm having my parents hide my hockey bag for a bit," Pacioretty said, laughing, his protective mom and dad just down the road. "I've got a charity game the middle of July and I think that's when I'm going to pull the bag out and dust it off. I'll try to skate as much as possible from that date forward. But not until then."

Pacioretty is weeks into his dryland training. He says he's "a lot stronger already" from his toil at Prentiss Hockey Performance in Darien, Conn., done alongside dozens of pros who include a number of Canadiens prospects.

Pacioretty took about a week off after the Canadiens season ended April 7, then jumped back into training for the IIHF World Hockey Championship in Helsinki, representing his native U.S. for the first time in senior competition. His two goals and 10 assists in eight games led his country, the Americans ultimately falling to Finland in the tournament's quarterfinals.

"Worlds were definitely an eye-opener and I learned a lot about my game and what I have to improve," he said. "To be honest, it looked like I played really well but I don't think I played as well as my numbers showed.

"On that big (200x100-foot) ice, I was playing a little too much on the perimeter and it was tough to get to the front of the net or bring the puck there. I wish I could have done a little more of that.

"It was a frustrating finish. I thought we were one of the most balanced teams there, at least capable of getting a medal."