RALEIGH, N.C. — Joe Pavelski doesn’t make much of the numbers he’s accumulated in his 17-year career.
Whenever the 38-year-old Stars forward is asked about hitting a round number, or passing another American on some sort of scoring list, the response generally resembles a shrug: sure, that’s cool, but it doesn’t change the outcome of hockey games. Pavelski’s teammates and coaches, on the other hand, recognize the difficulty in reaching the figures that Pavelski has.
On Saturday, during a 5-4 overtime loss in Carolina, Pavelski played his 1,200th career NHL game, becoming just the 10th active player to reach that mark.
