Angelo Esposito never had a chance to live up to the media's expectations of his CHL potential.

For Angelo Esposito, the 2008-2009 season was filled with such hope and such promise.

Awaiting Esposito was a fresh start with a new team in his hometown, a world junior gold medal with the Canadian world junior squad on Canadian soil, and an overall rejuvenated passion and love for the game.

After two rocky years where the expectations piled on to levels otherwise unreasonable for a 17 and 18-year-old, it certainly appeared as though everything in Angelo Esposito's world was finally right.

And then in an instant, on Feb. 11, it all came to a crashing halt.

Battling along the boards with a player from the visiting Victoriaville Tigres, Esposito gave the player a shove which resulted in his adversary falling on his right leg. With Esposito's skate pinned to the ice, there was little he could do to brace his leg for the impact.

"My knee felt like it twisted in," Esposito recalled this week after undergoing physiotherapy in Montreal.

Unable to put weight on his injured knee, Esposito knew it was serious, but not to the extent which later revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. With that, Esposito's season, and likely his junior career, came to an abrupt end.

"I thought I'd be back maybe a few weeks later but when I got the MRI results obviously I was wrong," he said.

The injury is an unfortunate end to one of the most heavily-scrutinized and maligned junior careers this past decade.

As is always the case in junior hockey, fans and media alike are in constant search of the next great star. Following Sidney Crosby's departure from junior hockey four seasons ago, many pointed to the then 16-year-old rookie with the Québec Remparts. It was a situation which tested Esposito's mental makeup as Crosby's heir apparent, but it was also a situation in which he had little room for error.

More to the point, it was situation in which Esposito had little chance at succeeding.

Playing in front of one of the biggest markets in Canada as a member of the Remparts, the media pressure was comparable to that of French Canadian stars with the Montreal Canadiens. The only difference is that the expectations weren't limited to media and fans in Québec alone as all of Canada had a vested interest in what they perceived their next bright star.

With those expectations came heavy scrutiny. When Esposito was cut from Canada's world junior team at 16, it was perhaps the first indication there wouldn't be a Crosby redux.

But nobody wanted to let the posterboy off the hook. When he was cut again at 17, many began labeling him as one who couldn't deal with pressure. Then when it happened a third time, at 18, he was perceived as though he had already become a bust as a prospect - that his best year was already behind him.

So quick were those to write him off, many began exclaiming Esposito shouldn't bother trying out for the Canadian world junior team a fourth time to risk possible embarrassment of becoming the first player to be cut in four years of succession.

Esposito not only made the Canadian world junior team in his last attempt, but was a valuable member, scoring three goals and an assist, including one against the Swedes in the gold medal game.

It was vindication for a young man who had heard more criticism than compliments from those placing the lofty expectations on him since his rookie season. As he explains, the goal of making the world junior team had more to do with realizing a childhood dream than it had to do with sticking it to his harshest critics.

"I've always wanted to be a part of that team and that was the main reason I went back," he said. "I wasn't out there to prove anyone wrong. I was out there for myself to know that since I was a kid, I grew up watching that tournament, I always wanted to win the gold medal there and I was out there to win a gold (medal)."

Watching Esposito's celebrations after his goals at the world junior tournament made one thing clear: he was finally just another one of the guys and that the mounted pressure from years of expectations were being lifted from his shoulders.

If ever there was a player who needed a change in scenery last summer, it was Esposito. The move to Montreal provided him with a fresh start while giving the Juniors a local star to market the new team around. But more than that, it gave Montreal head coach and general manager Pascal Vincent the unique opportunity to change the atmosphere for a player who had more pressure placed on him than any Vincent had previously come across.

"That's the one thing I've never seen before where so many people are comparing him to different players now and in the past and that's not right for the kid," Vincent said. "Angelo Esposito is Angelo Esposito. He's not Crosby, he's not (Evgeni) Malkin and he's not Georges Laraque."

Vincent's first goal once trading for the sniper in the off-season was one few would imagine. With all the skill in the world, Vincent and his staff set about making the game fun for Esposito, a goal the young forward embraced.

"I think first of all they helped me change my environment - they put me in a positive mindset," he said. "The game has always been fun but they just brought it to me in a different sort of way."

"We just wanted him to come to the rink and do what he loves most which was putting on a pair of skates and play hockey," Vincent added, saying part of his objective was teaching Esposito new ways of handling media pressure. "Some people are going to say whatever they want to say but it's just about giving better tools to young people in how to react when they face adversity."

As Esposito indicated, the approach seemingly gave him a new lease on his hockey life.

In light of the new mentality, Esposito says the most disappointing aspect of his junior career ending through injury is that he won't be able to partake in the playoffs with his teammates.

"I'm really disappointed I can't be there to help them but I'm going to do my best to support them," he said.

Signed by the Atlanta Thrashers, the team that holds his professional rights, it's almost guaranteed Esposito will not play another junior game in his career.

Meanwhile, his road to recovery will be a long one. Esposito will be rehabbing his injured knee for the majority of the summer until training camp in Atlanta in September.

No matter how his career moves forward with Atlanta, Esposito won't likely soon forget the life lessons learned in his only season in Montreal.

"I don't coach hockey players; I coach people and I try to make them better people," Vincent said. "It was more just a matter of living in the moment and enjoying every single moment."