Capitals forward Brooks Laich made clear his No. 1 goal in his first start as a defenseman in his NHL career on Saturday: Hustle after the puck and get it back to the forwards. It was certainly not the time to start over-complicating things.
Wasn’t an easy night for him with defensive partner Roman Hamrlik going down with an injury in the second period against New Jersey, leaving the Caps with four true defensemen and Laich. But he acquitted himself well enough. Safe to say, though, Laich will be happy to get back to a normal forward position when his team faces the Nashville Predators tonight in Tennessee. He was centering the second line at practice on Monday and both Hamrlik and John Erskine, who sat out Saturday’s game entirely with an undisclosed injury, are apparently ready to go. So how about an assessment from one of Laich’s fellow – for one night, at least – blueliners:
“It was good. [Laich] made one really nice backhand pass, actually, from goal line to blueline which was pretty impressive,” Caps defenseman Karl Alzner said. “We were all giving it to him after that. I thought he did a pretty good job. It’s nice to hear him say he’s got a little bit more appreciation for playing defense now. The forwards are always chirping the d-men and saying that we’ve got an easy job. So now that he actually gets to see what it’s like I think he has a better appreciation.”
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