RALEIGH, N.C. — In the days after the surgery that put Max Pacioretty’s right Achilles tendon back together — while he was still trying to piece together his new life in Raleigh — he started planning his recovery before he even got out of bed.
There were immediate details to handle. His wife had yet to arrive. He needed to find a house to rent. They had to find schools and hockey teams for their five kids. August is the month in which a hockey player changing teams builds the foundation for the new season, and Pacioretty had barely even gotten started.
But even as he managed all of that, he was already managing his plan to get back on the ice. He knew he wanted to get as much information about the rehabilitation process as he could, and he started thinking about other players who had been through it. He didn’t know Justin Williams, the former Carolina Hurricanes captain who suffered the same injury 14 years earlier, but he put Williams — still here and now a consultant to general manager Don Waddell — at the top of his list to call.
