Just days after being traded from the Washington Capitals, the team Brooks Laich played more than 740 regular season games for, the veteran forward faced his former team as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Verizon Center on Wednesday.
Capitals fans and his former teammates gave the 32-year-old Laich a rousing ovation during a stoppage in play.
Having spent almost his entire career in Washington, playing alongside Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, Laich admits he was left with an “empty feeling” following the trade.
After all the years with that franchise, he wanted to win a championship with the Capitals, who have risen to the top of the Eastern Conference and NHL overall standings, and emerged as one of the favorites to appear in this year’s Stanley Cup Final.
But instead, Laich will play the remainder of this season for the last-place Leafs, a team in the midst of a massive rebuild.