Overtime winner lifts Washington over Ottawa, 3-2 Capitals center Brooks Laich has never cared much for milestones. So on Saturday morning he claimed that his 500th career NHL game would be no different than any other. He is just thankful to have played in every one of them.
Laich’s reaction after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against the Ottawa Senators later that night was probably a better window into his true feelings. Against his former team – the one whose uniform he wore just once, in his first NHL game – Laich lifted Washington to a 3-2 victory at Verizon Center.
Recommended Stories
That goal, assisted by teammate Jason Chimera, also handed new Caps coach Dale Hunter his first NHL win in three tries. Nicklas Backstrom and Troy Brouwer had the other goals for Washington, which shook off a late game-tying tally by Ottawa’s Milan Michalek with 3 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the game.
“Talked about it since we made the [coaching] change [on Monday]. Try and make baby steps every day,” Laich said. “We were better in our second game from our first game and I thought we were better tonight. We get that first win out of the way now and now we get out on the road. We were not getting the results and now we’ve got out of a little funk with a win. But we have to start stringing two, three, four, five together to make some progress that way.”
The Caps (13-11-1, 27 points) jumped in the standings with the victory to No. 7 in the Eastern Conference. That’s not exactly where they expected to be at this point in the season, but stopping the bleeding after a four-game losing streak was the important part. Washington jumped Ottawa (12-11-3, 27 points), which entered the game ahead in the standings, but has played one extra game so drops to No. 9.
Defenseman Karl Alzner made a quick pass up the middle to Laich after a faceoff win – something they’d talked about all game. Laich’s quick pass to Chimera on his left wing worked better than expected when Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, who’d had a fine game until then, caught a skate in a rut in the ice and fell. That left Chimera alone to blaze up the wing. He dished to Laich, who patiently waited for goalie Craig Anderson to go down and roofed the puck into the top of the net. It took all of 12 seconds from faceoff to victory in the extra period.
“That’s kind of a great way for [Laich] to end it,” said veteran winger Mike Knuble. “He’ll remember that one, I’m sure, for a while. He played a strong game – a strong game checking. They gave one up there at the end…[But Chimera and Laich] got that one back.”
Laich had a special relationship with former coach Bruce Boudreau, who coached him in the AHL at Hershey and in the NHL for over four seasons before being fired on Monday. Laich was as distraught as any player in the Washington dressing room when speaking about Boudreau on Monday and how the players themselves had cost him his job. But Hunter, too, sees the value in the 28-year-old. Once exclusively a winger, Laich has moved to center after signing a six-year, $27 million contract with the team in June. Again anchoring the third line of Chimera and Joel Ward, Laich saw 20:45 of ice time on Saturday. Only Ovechkin and Chimera were on the ice more among forwards. He took six shots on goal and had just one attempt blocked.
“[Laich’s] a warrior. He plays a lot of minutes for me, and cares about winning and losing,” Hunter said. “You can see how much I play him, so that answers your question that he’s valuable to this team.”
