KANATA, Ont. — Max Pacioretty thought about quitting hockey.
He was barely playing anyhow.
A whopping five games in 2022-23 with Carolina. Another 47, but only four goals, in 2023-24 with Washington.
He had suffered two Achilles injuries within six months and spent consecutive summers swallowed by rehab and doctors’ visits before he inked a tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
One last chance to latch himself to a contender and chase a Stanley Cup.
If the dream didn’t already seem fading for the 36-year-old, “performance” bonuses on a near-league-minimum contract triggered by 10 games played and 35 games played spoke volumes about how the bar for hope had lowered for the former 30-goal sniper.
What a moment, then, for Pacioretty’s clinching-slash-unclenching shot with under six minutes to go to stand as the Game 6 winner in Kanata and send the Toronto Maple Leafs to the second round.
Good thing he didn’t quit.
With full support from his wife, Katia, and their five children, the appropriately nicknamed “Patches” dragged his family “around the world” this summer as he visited doctors and trainers and potential NHL landing spots.
He weighed the cost of moving away from his kids for a season to keep his career on life support.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with people in my family and others, and I thought that I was done playing a number of times — and everyone always supported me to keep going,” Pacioretty said, in the relief of Thursday’s 4-2 victory.
“My story is just one of many, and it’s one that’s public, so it’s one that’s talked about. But a lot of resilient guys in this organization have been through a lot as well. So, guys like that motivate me to keep going.”
Pacioretty had not scored in 132 days, hadn’t bent the twine during a playoff game in four springs — which is what might be holding his ankle together these days.
The proud veteran burned with quiet frustration when he was forced to sit out of the Leafs’ division-clinching stretch run due to cap constraints. Yet he kept his mouth shut and his head down. He used another forced training window to sharpen his skills and rest those often-sore muscles he now uses to launch bodychecks instead of wristers from distance.
Pacioretty had looked slow at points during Toronto’s Game 4 and Game 5 losses. If he wasn’t wondering if he still had enough fuel in the tank to make an imprint in a high-stakes closeout game, plenty of outsiders were.
Yet coach Craig Berube not only stuck with a losing lineup, he promoted ol’ Patches to the top six, trusting the veteran’s hands and mind would be steady.
Pacioretty rewarded the faith.
“It means a lot. You know, you keep playing because you want to pitch in,” Pacioretty said. “When you’re sitting out and the team is winning, you’re happy for them. But you want to be a part of it. I’m just thankful for the opportunity.”
The thing is, Pacioretty had a prime scoring chance early in the game when a puck landed on his blade in the slot. Linus Ullmark was scrambling. The Ottawa Senators’ cage was gaping. He slammed one off the post.
He wasn’t going to spoil his second chance.
“Relieved” is how the big winger described his emotions when he finally beat Ullmark. “Willy (Nylander) made that great play in the first, and I hit the post off a wide-open net. So, I was kinda talking to myself throughout the game.”
Leafs Nation, surely, was talking to itself in the two minutes before Pacioretty drove the stake.
Their team had already let a 3-0 series stranglehold slip to 3-2 and, on this night, watched an early 2-0 lead evaporate on a nifty tip from Brady Tkachuk and a bad-angle ricochet shot from David Perron.
The Canadian Tire Centre had all the frenzied excitement of your local Canadian Tire until the home side began to rally. Then the barn exploded with raucous energy.
A bad beat. A swerve in momentum.
The greedy underdogs sensed a choke.
“But the bench was good. I mean, we didn’t panic,” Berube explained. “Guys, let’s go get it right now. That’s what I heard on the bench. Let’s go get it. We’re good. I thought we came out, got on our toes again, and we’re playing.”
The coach sensed a “different mindset” in his players Thursday after getting dragged back to Ottawa in the last Eastern Conference series standing, an elevated urgency among the players who fumbled a sweep Saturday and laid an egg at home in Game 5.
“It wasn’t do-or-die,” Berube said. “But we wanted to finish it off here, for sure.”
Captain Auston Matthews — troublingly ineffective in Game 5’s shutout — got the Leafs on the board with a sneaky power-play strike in a first period in which Toronto’s defenders limited Ottawa to a scattered three shots on goal.
“Our captain led the way,” Berube said.
The good road team settled into plodding, predictable Berube hockey, controlling the pace of play until those nervy minutes between the Perron goal and No. 67’s throwback magic.
“It’s huge,” Matthews said.
“Just the ups and downs that he’s been through in the last couple years, and putting himself in this position, battling back from a couple injuries this year. And he scores the series-clinching goal. I mean, you can’t say enough good things about him. I love playing with him. It’s been awesome getting to know him, and he’s a big part of our room.”
A room that finally took care of business, improved that ugly 1-13 stat into 2-13, and can put to rest any delirious nightmares of a reverse sweep.
“It’s in one ear, out the other. It’s all about the guys in the room,” Matthews said. “All the outside stuff doesn’t really matter. It’s about the 20-25 guys that are in our room, and the belief in one another, doing it for one another, and just going out there and competing.”
Next up: A rematch with the Florida Panthers, a vicious, experienced bunch that handed the Maple Leafs their lunch the only other time this group got a peek behind the veil of Round 1.
“Gonna be another hard series,” Matthews said. “Defending champs, back-to-back Cup finalists. It’s gonna be hard. We definitely gotta reset, do our homework and rest up. Do what we can and go in there with confidence and go in there with some pushback.”
Fox’s Fast Five
• Wild clerical error on the Leafs’ part. Berube accidentally added black ace Alex Nylander, instead of brother William, to Game 6’s playing roster.
“Normal names are up there, but when you call guys up, they’re all on there (as well),” Berube chuckled postgame. “I got confused. So, I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ And so I told the officials, ‘It’s Willy, not Alex.’”
The brothers were flipped, and William was allowed to play unpenalized.
A sliding-doors moment that nearly resulted in an all-time unforced error. Funny, not funny.
All William did was score twice and tack on his 29th career playoff assist. Happy 29th birthday.
“Luckily someone caught that,” said Nylander, who heard about it while celebrating with his family. “We’re happy, obviously, to be in the second round. But now our focus is Florida.”
• Bobby McMann, a 20-goal man, will carry a 17-game goal drought into Round 2.
He’s overdue.
That said, Berube did promote him to Nylander and John Tavares’s line late. He could be in for more top-six time.
• Signs, signs, everywhere signs…
• Some incredibly balanced ice-time distribution by Berube, considering the stakes and how aggressively past Leafs coaches have leaned on the stars in these situations.
No Leafs forward played less than 10:20 or more than 19:07. No defenceman skated more than 22:51 or less than 15:16.
• Anthony Stolarz earned some well-deserved rest after starting a career-high six straight starts and outduelling a Vezina winner.
“It’s kind of a roller coaster,” he admitted, after allowing that iffy third-period, bank-shot goal to Perron. “Very grateful the boys were able to pick me up there at the end.”
Juicy second-round storyline: Understudy Stolarz versus mentor and friend Sergei Bobrovsky.
