Photo by Bridget Samuels/ Flickr
Every team, every game, has a hero. In hockey there’s usually more than one hero per team. Some like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin are always at the top of the headlines, appearing in numerous All Star games and Olympic events. Others go about the business of trying to win games for their team without much fanfare. This week’s “Unsung Hero” is the Washington Capitals’ Brooks Laich.
When you think of Washington, the name that most often comes to mind is Ovechkin. Laich’s a great player in his own right, producing 41 points while appearing in every game last season. Laich stepped his game up during the 2012 postseason, tallying seven points (tying him with Jason Chimera for third in Caps postseason scoring) and a plus-1 rating in all 14 games.
Another thing that makes Laich, well, “laich”able is the fact that he’s a good samaritan. One such example of this occurred back in April 2010 after the Caps had lost their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, blowing a 3-1 series lead in the process, to the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens.
On his way home following his team’s game 7 loss, Laich noticed a woman and her teenage daughter on the side of the road with a flat tire and stopped to ask if they needed help. The woman asked if he could just wait with them until AAA, whom she’d just called, arrived. Laich did better than that though, removing the flat tire and replacing it with a spare. (Source: tonic.com)
This just goes to show you that some hockey players, even on their toughest days, are still willing to help others.
If you have an “unsung hero” you’d like to nominate, please feel free to send me a tweet, at @TBLightning491, or contact me via e-mail at lburg2009@aol.com.
