from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

Max Pacioretty is a sweet and gentle soul. Too sweet and gentle, you might think, for the helter-skelter mayhem of the National Hockey League, with its sharp elbows, sharper skate blades and still sharper critics ready to pounce on every move.

Yet gentle Max has prospered in the world of gap-toothed warriors, and rose to become both a feared sniper and captain of the once mighty Montreal Canadiens. Not bad for a college boy from Connecticut.

Much has been written — and much more will be written — about how Pacioretty’s relationship with his club declined from that moment three years ago when GM Marc Bergevin and former head coach Michel Therrien showed up at Pacioretty’s door bearing a jersey with the captain’s “C”.

Pacioretty was the organization’s fair-haired boy back then, the one chosen as captain over the self-regarding P.K. Subban, the one chosen to lead the bleu-blanc-rouge into what was supposed to be a beautiful future.

Instead, that future had turned ugly as a baboon’s behind.

continued

from Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star,