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Max Pacioretty just can’t get no love in this town.

Respect, yes. Genuine affection, not so much.

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It’s a weird thing. The Montreal Canadiens’ captain has one of the hottest hands in the National Hockey League and that’s been the case since early in his NHL career. In his first full season with the Canadiens, in 2011-12, he scored 33 goals and he’s never scored fewer than 30 in a full regular-length season since. (During the lockout shortened 2012-13 season, he had 14 goals in 44 games.)

In the last three seasons, he scored, respectively, 39, 37, and then 30 goals during last year’s apocalyptic collapse of a season. Keep in mind that 30 is the new 40 in today’s goal-starved NHL.

By any definition, he is one hell of a goal-scorer. Since 2011, there are only three other players who’ve put the puck in the net more often — a chap named Alexander Ovechkin, who has 249 goals over that period; Steven Stamkos, who has 202 goals, and Joe Pavelski, whom you may be surprised to learn has 180 markers since 2011. Pacioretty has scored 178 goals since the 2011 season. Our unassuming captain has more goals in that time frame than some of the league’s leading lights, including Sid the Kid, Evgeni Malkin, and Patrick Kane.