Max Pacioretty gets emotional in locker room speech about return to hockey

In the last two years, maybe no high profile hockey player has endured as much career hardship as Max Pacioretty. Twice in the last two seasons, Max Pacioretty has torn his ACL, last year after just 5 games with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Now with the Washington Capitals, Pacioretty recorded his first point in his third game since returning to hockey, and gave an emotional locker room speech caught on video.

The video below shows a great look at what seems to be an upbeat locker room in Washington. Coach Spencer Carbedy goes around the room in the video shouting out players' efforts, and when he gets to Pacioretty, the room demands a speech. It begins about 30 seconds into the video.




Clearly reflecting on a brutal stretch of luck in his career, Pacioretty immediately looked emotional when asked for the speech. With his voice almost breaking, he recognizes the hardship he's been through and how much he's thankful to be a part of the game again. It's a classy and wise statement from a respected veteran in the league.

Now a veteran of 858 games over his career with now four different teams, Pacioretty has scored 326 goals and 646 points in his career. With the Washington Capitals, he can provide some much needed depth scoring to try to help them into a playoff spot, or if the team can't make it that far, perhaps be traded at the deadline to a contending team. No matter what, it's great to see Patches back in the NHL.