Monday 22 July 2013

Max Pacioretty is a courageous warrior, and a great Canadien

Social media is great to get information on my beloved Canadiens, and exchange with other fans, but it can sometimes be trying and disappointing.  As is the case now, when some posters on HockeyInsideOut.com have taken to saying that, get this, "Max Pacioretty is soft"(!)

I've posted before on how some things get said on HIO, then repeated enough times that it becomes gospel.  Last summer the tom-toms beat constantly for the Canadiens to 'get rid' of René Bourque, and of Andrei Markov, who was finished since he'd injured his knee like Bobby Orr did in 1974.

This summer the Insane Brigade has taken potshots everywhere, loose cannons that they are, but lately they've been parroting at each other that Max Pacioretty is "soft".  Which is incredible.  And completely wrong.  It's demeaning to a player who has shown nothing but courage and toughness so far in his tenure as a Canadien.

Max isn't soft.  Their brains are.  They're as mushy as their logic.

Click on this link and this link, then try to tell me this guy is soft.

We all remember him coming back from a broken neck, right?  How about when he returned to the lineup weeks before it was expected from his appendectomy?  These are the most spectacular examples of his toughness, but he has routinely played through pain and overcame injuries.

Two seasons ago, he hurt his wrist in the eighth game of the season against the Panthers, knocking him out of the game.  There were whispers that he might be out for weeks.  He played in the next game and scored two goals plus an assist in a 5-1 win against Philadelphia.  After the game he allowed that doctors recommended he sit out a couple of games to avoid the risk of aggravating the injury, but he didn't want to miss a game against the Flyers.  I didn't see any clowns running around then squawking that he was soft.

Look, you want to take a position that he doesn't play physical enough, that you wish that he'd bodycheck more, muck and grind in the corners, joust in front of the net to get more garbage goals, then say that, precisely.  Don't say that he's 'soft', because that's inaccurate and untrue.  It's actually lazy and stupid to say that.

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