The Washington Capitals' first day of training camp was only about 10 minutes old when forward Brooks Laich left the ice. The 30-year-old aggravated a sore left hip flexor, one he emphasizes is completely unrelated to the lingering groin injury that forced him to miss all but nine games and required surgery last season.
“The other side of my body, the other thing I went through last year is 100 percent," Laich said. "I have no inhibition, fear. I have full power, full flexibility, stride, everything. I was feeling great as of one week ago at 100 percent and to have this come on -- it’s better now I guess than at the start of the season, but we’ll take care of it now and hopefully get over it very quickly and have some exhibition games and practices very soon.”
According to Laich, he initially suffered the injury while skating at Kettler Capitals Iceplex for the first time this season on Sept. 5.
"It was actually my first day back in D.C.," Laich said. "Something I noticed is that the ice here is a lot softer than the ice I skated on back home and when I skated here I just tweaked it a little bit."
Laich took four days off once he noticed the discomfort, but skated Tuesday and participated in fitness testing as well as an "aggressive acupuncture session" Wednesday.
"I had a little inflammation from that, a little soreness from that,” Laich said. "So now it’s going to be a day-by-day thing. It’s not a thing that I’m really concerned about, it should come back fairly quickly and once I start to feel really good off the ice I’ll go back on the ice.”
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