WASHINGTON - Clean shaven and wearing blue Toronto Maple Leafs gear that looked fresh out of the box, Brooks Laich fondly remembered his 12 years in Washington Capitals red -- especially this season.
“The sense that we had with this year’s team was there was something very special in the works,” Laich said.
Something really special could be yet to come, but the Capitals on Tuesday night became the first NHL team to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they did it with 13 games left on their schedule. Clinching so fast was “unexpected” even inside the Washington locker room, forward Justin Williams said, but to former players it’s not that much of a shock.