Injured forward could be ready by Saturday
Capitals forward Brooks Laich has been to the mountaintop. And to be honest, things aren’t much fun from such great heights.
Six stories above the Verizon Center ice, Laich recently watched his teammates play the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Calgary Flames from a luxury suite. The game looks so simple from 200 feet in the air. You see a play develop moments before it happens on the ice. That trailing defenseman hopping into the rush at the last moment looks like a perfect opportunity for a quick pass and a scoring chance. Back on the ice, however, all of that simplicity disappears and the fearsome speed of an NHL game returns.
Laich has had to deal with watching from on high since a freak accident at practice last week. A shot by rookie defenseman John Carlson rang off the crossbar and smacked Laich below the left eye — “like I got hit with a hammer,” he said. It has sidelined the 26-year-old left wing for three games. The injury rendered the left side of Laich’s face numb. That’s actually good because there’s little pain now — just an odd itching sensation as the nerves in his cheek slowly recover. But the injury also ended Laich’s consecutive games played streak at 257. In the rough-and-tumble NHL, that number is no small feat.
“I haven’t missed a game to injury in almost six years,” Laich said after skating on his own before Monday’s practice at Kettler Iceplex. “It’s almost a pride thing to play every single day, whether you’re bumped or whether you’re bruised. It [stinks] that it’s out of my control and it’s not something that I have the chance to play through.”
Indeed, team officials are bent on protecting Laich from himself. This is a player, after all, who likes to push himself in front of the opposing net — where hulking defenseman lurk and pucks whiz past your head at 100 miles-per-hour. Laich doesn’t even wear a protective visor. That will change upon his return when he dons a steel cage — the kind he last wore in bantam and midget hockey. Laich will skate with his teammates Tuesday morning before their game against Ottawa on Tuesday. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said there’s a good chance Laich will be ready by Saturday’s game at Columbus.
“You don’t realize how much you’ve lost until he’s not in the lineup,” Boudreau said. “I keep going down the bench looking for Brooks to call his name because he’s so versatile and can play left wing, center in any situation. He plays hard and he’s a hard guy to replace.”
