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Big expectations
- Updated: September 7, 2016
MONTREAL – Max Pacioretty has his sights set on enjoying a productive World Cup of Hockey experience.
After representing the United States internationally on three previous occasions – including most recently at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi – the 27-year-old New Canaan, CT native is looking forward to sporting his country’s colors on North American soil for the very first time.
The Canadiens’ captain, who is currently in Columbus, OH for a short training camp ahead of three pre-tournament games before things get going for real on September 17th in Toronto, believes that already being familiar with many of his fellow American teammates will certainly play an important part in his success in the weeks to come.
“It’s cool because I know everyone there now. That wasn’t the case in the past. I think last Olympics [in 2014], a lot of those guys were together from the previous time when they won silver [in Vancouver in 2010], and so it was a little bit different for me. I feel like I had to take a bit of a back seat to everybody since they’d been there for a while,” explained Pacioretty, who will be sharing a locker room with 13 players with whom he competed with in Sochi two-and-a-half years ago. “Now that I’ve kind of grown some relationships with some of the guys, I think I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable.”
Pacioretty also trusts that playing on a rink with familiar dimensions at the Air Canada Centre will also help his cause, too. While he did light up the scoresheet for Team USA at the 2012 World Hockey Championship in Finland with a team-leading two goals and 12 points in eight games, plying his trade on bigger ice surfaces hasn’t always been popular with the four-time 30 goal-scorer.
“I’ve never really felt that good on it, so to be able to play an international event on our ice is something that guys in the league should take pride in, especially the North Americans because this is kind of our ice sheet and the way we grew up playing,” shared …
