The New Jersey Devils played spoilsport for Max Pacioretty's debut with the Washington Capitals, winning 6-3 on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
The former Montreal Canadiens captain was limited to five short games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season due to a second Achilles tendon tear on Jan. 19.
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In his first appearances since the injury with his new club, the 35-year-old winger was limited to 11 minutes and 47 seconds of playing time as he played alongside Dylan Strome and Matthew Phillips on his team's third line. Pacioretty finished his night of work with a -1 differential.
Despite everything, the striker was relieved to be back in action. However, he is aware that he still has a long way to go before he is back in top shape.
“I've played five games in almost two years, so yeah, a lot of emotions, but at the end of the day it probably couldn't be worse for me than tonight. So we have to improve,” he said after the meeting, his comments reported by The Hockey News.
“It's a tough situation right now, I think I've had some practice with a line,” Pacioretty continued. It's the time of year when we don't train much. I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but I definitely felt like I practiced a line once.”
Thanks to two goals from captain Nico Hischier, the Devils quickly took a 2-0 lead after 9:50 minutes. John Carlson brought the two teams back to a tie (3-3) at the end of the second period thanks to a cannonball on the power play.
The final stand of the game went in favor of the visitors, who had the red light flicker twice in the second half of the game through Dawson Mercer and Michael McLeod without any response.
Connor McMichael and Evgeny Kuznetsov are the other players from the American capital team who responded.