The 34-year-old said that he was inspired by his family to not give up on his career, and he has a plan in mind for returning to play with the Capitals.

ARLINGTON, V.A. — Standing in the Washington Capitals locker room, occasionally glancing down at his feet — a reminder of the last few years of chaos — Max Pacioretty declares that he's gotten his life back.

The 34-year-old has skated just three times, but being back on the ice after tearing his Achilles twice in a span of five months, he feels like he has control again, and complete freedom to play the game he loves.

"This is what I was born to do, so it feels like some normalcy in my life and definitely have much more of a smile on my face now that I'm skating," Pacioretty said. "I've never taken anywhere close to that amount of time off, so definitely different going on the ice, but it comes back quickly. You feel pretty decent.

Getting to this point hasn't been easy for him, though, as he's had to come face-to-face with a difficult reality and tough question: why, just five games after making a return from a torn Achilles, did it tear again?

And, after multiple doctor visits and trips all over the world, from Germany to Finland to Canada and across the United States, Pacioretty found out that it all stems from two foot fractures in a span of two years.

"It all kind of snowballs. The good news is that I've seen so many people now and some good opinions, some the opposite. But I feel like we have a grasp on what has kind of been going on. In my career, I've been known to play through injuries and obviously, when you do so it compensates into patterns," Pacioretty explained. "So I dealt with two broken feet in two years, and I think that's when this really all started to happen.

"I've seen a lot of people. I've been all over the world at this point. That's kind of the conclusion that they've come to and that I've accepted. Not to say that — this stuff is not black and white. As much as we'd like medicine to be black and white, I've learned a lot, that I can go see four doctors and get four different opinions.... But after my last injury, I did speak to five or six of whom you'd call the best experts in the world, and I got six opinions as to what I need to do to move forward. So I was frustrated with that at the time, but that's beyond me now."

It took a lot for him to get to that point, though. After re-tearing his Achilles in January, he spent a lot of time resting, isolated from family and having to miss his sons' hockey tournaments and other activities. That free time allowed for several negative thoughts to creep in, including ones that encouraged him to hang them up.

"There was a good solid, two, three months where I was ready to stop playing," he admitted. "I spent a good portion of the last year in bed, not being able to do things with my family and kids... that was really difficult," Pacioretty said.

Then, he realized as a hockey dad, hanging up the skates wasn't an option.

"I don't want to ever say that I gave up on something that I could have continued doing," he said. "It's important for me to do this for myself, but also for my family and my kids to kind of show them that we can get through this together."

So, instead of giving up, the Connecticut native got to work. He found the answers he was looking for, and in the offseason, signed a one-year, $2 million contract to join Washington, where his recovery has been going well.

While he wasn't able to skate earlier on, he was able to keep up with his skill set off the ice. He rented former teammate and former Capitals center Lars Eller's house, which is equipped with a makeshift shooting setup in the garage and allowed him to get some at-home practice in. Then, his days included trips to the practice facility to work with trainers and rehab while getting exercise in.

Then finally, after getting back in shape and customizing his skates so that his now forever-inflamed tendon can fit into his right boot, he is back on the ice.

"We're in a good place right now... I think we're doing a really good job of trying to make sure I come back and I try and stay healthy," Pacioretty said. 

As for what's next, it's one day at a time for Pacioretty. He doesn't want to rush his return — after all he said he's seen "the good, the bad, the ugly," when it comes to Achilles injuries — though he does have a date in mind of when he wants to return to game action.

"I guess it's a little different from Aaron Rdogers' situation, right?" he joked. "I've been through this before. It's circled in pencil around a couple days... that's out of my control. I haven't talked to the team about that, but it's something that would be pretty special to me. We'll just kind of see where it takes it.

"I'm really taking it one skate and one day at a time. Good news is I've responded well to being out there and whether that means we ramp things up quickly or slowly, that's kinda out of my control," Pacioretty said. "I'm just listening to what I'm being told in terms of that while giving feedback with how I feel."

At the end of the day, though, Pacioretty is sure of one thing: he still has a lot left to show, and, as it says in the locker room, something to prove.

"I know I have so much more hockey in the tank. I'm a different person when I'm out there skating," Pacioretty said. "Even if it's for 15 minutes without pucks. This is what I was born to do, and I want to do this as long as I can."