Craig Laughlin announced Friday that he will be returning to the Capitals’ broadcast booth on Sunday for the first time in over two months. Locker, the team’s long-time color commentator, had open-heart surgery to repair a bicuspid aortic valve and a blocked left anterior descending artery in January and has been recovering and rehabbing since then.
Ahead of the team’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, the Capitals’ social media asked the players and head coach Spencer Carbery to share some welcome-back messages before Locker’s big return.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, who has had Laughlin’s voice call games in all 20 seasons of his legendary career, kicked things off. “Locker, welcome back, my man,” Ovechkin said. “Miss you, see you.”
Another long-time Capital, John Carlson, was next up. “Welcome back, Locker, we missed you,” he said. “Wouldn’t have ever counted you out, bud.”
Carbery followed two of his locker room leaders, saying, “Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see you, Locker. Looking forward to it.”
Tom Wilson added, “We miss you, and we’re excited to have you back.”
All in all, 18 Capitals players shared messages for Laughlin. Let’s hope they can get a big win for him against the Sabres.
Full transcript
Alex Ovechkin: Locker, welcome back, my man. Miss you, see you.
John Carlson: Welcome back, Locker, we missed you. Wouldn’t have ever counted you out, bud.
Spencer Carbery: Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see you, Locker. Looking forward to it.
Dylan Strome: So happy you’re back Locker. Can’t wait to hear you on the call on Sunday.
Trevor van Riemsdyk: Locker, love seeing that pump-up video you made. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.
Nic Dowd: Locker, we miss you buddy, hope you’re doing great. Can’t wait to see you, man.
Martin Fehervary: Well, happy to get you back, man.
Aliaksei Protas: Missed ya, welcome back.
Jakob Chychrun: Locker, welcome back, man. We’re so happy to have you here. We missed you. And, let’s get it going. We got a big push to end the season. We’re happy to have you with us.
Pierre-Luc Dubois: Welcome back. I’ll be nice to see you again around.
Taylor Raddysh: Welcome back, Locker. Happy to hear everything went well.
Brandon Duhaime: Welcome back, we’re excited to have ya.
Charlie Lindgren: Locker, we missed ya. Glad to hear you’re doing better. Can’t wait to see you.
Matt Roy: Welcome back, man. Happy to have ya.
Connor McMichael: Hey, Locker, happy to have you back. Can’t wait to hear your calls.
Logan Thompson: Happy you’re back, happy you’re doing okay, and excited to see you again.
Tom Wilson: We miss you, and we’re excited to have you back.
Lars Eller: Good to have you back, brother.
Alex Alexeyev: Welcome back, glad everything’s okay.
