TORONTO – On any given day the white board inside Brooks Laich’s kitchen might read like something out of a philosophy textbook or a child’s notebook.
It is there where he and his fiancée, Julianne Hough, frequently write uplifting notes for one another that can range from a deep motivational thought to something much simpler like “have fun.”
The messages are meant to serve as small reminders of the joy that can be found in each day. For two busy people, each with an all-consuming career, these notes are so highly valued that the white board has been given a spot on the kitchen table.
“We really enjoy working on ourselves and not letting the things that happen to us dictate our lives, but making sure our reaction to the things that happen to us dictates our lives,” Laich said Tuesday in an interview. “We challenge each other, we motivate each other, we support each other and it’s something that makes life a whole lot more enjoyable, especially when you are going through a tough time.”
For the 33-year-old from Wawota, Sask., this is undoubtedly a tough time – despite his best efforts to search out the positives in his current situation.
After a decade-long run as a NHL regular, Laich fully expected to be one of the few veteran voices around a young Toronto Maple Leafs team this season. Then training camp ended with him being placed on waivers and eventually shipped to the American Hockey League.
Here we are seven weeks later standing inside Ricoh Coliseum, a short drive from the Air Canada Centre but a long way from the life Laich once knew.
Still, he is smiling while sweat pours down his face after electing not to take the option on an optional morning skate. Laich speaks passionately about his desire to get back to the NHL and credits his partner of three years for helping him remain focused since joining the Marlies.
As an actress, Hough is familiar with the challenges of a job where you’re forever being measured and tested. She can only be in Toronto on a part-time basis because of work commitments, but is always eager to lend a sympathetic ear.
“Thank god for FaceTime,” said Laich. “She’s here right now. It’s just refreshing to know that you do have somebody to talk to if ever you need that. I met my best friend, the love of my life, so I’m very lucky that life is fulfilled even without the game of hockey.
“The game of hockey is just a special privilege that I get to do every day.”
And yet there is something about the game that still gnaws at him after all these years.
Laich has been around long enough to understand the difference between sport in its purest form and sport as a business. He’s played 764 NHL games for Ottawa, Washington and Toronto, and remains driven to prove that he deserves to add to that total before his career is finished.
“When you’ve had a taste of it and you know what it’s like, you really miss a lot of aspects,” said Laich. “You miss the compete level, you miss the execution, you miss the intelligence, you miss being challenged every single day – not that that doesn’t happen down here, but it’s just at a whole different level there.”
He is not alone on a Marlies team that also features Milan Michalek and Colin Greening. They are each on one-way NHL contracts and collectively earn more than the total that will be spent in salary on virtually ever other AHL team this season.
In addition to the long bus rides and less lavish lifestyle, they are adjusting to not playing every game.
The Marlies are carrying a huge roster of players and there isn’t enough ice time to go around. When each of the veterans arrived, head coach Sheldon Keefe sat them down to explain that he wanted to help their careers but also had to focus on developing the organization’s prospects.
“They’ve been really good about understanding that,” said Keefe. “They want to play and play a lot … but we’re in a situation where we’re trying to make it work for everybody and not losing sight of what the priority is with our younger guys.”
On Tuesday, Laich dressed for just the 10th time in 18 games when the Marlies hosted the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
It hasn’t been easy.
“Sometimes you go home and you still have the monster left inside you – that you didn’t compete yet today and didn’t get that out,” he said. “Competing for me is a way of expressing myself, it’s a way I fulfill myself and feel alive. And if you’re not able to do that on a daily basis it becomes a struggle sometimes.”
Laich has not been given much guidance from Leafs management on where he stands and isn’t really seeking it out.
In the big picture, he understands the direction the organization is taking even if he doesn’t agree with the decision to move forward without him.
On some level, he hopes the challenge of getting back to the NHL brings out something new from within.
“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want,” he said. “Life isn’t going to go your way all the time.”
All he can worry about now is putting his best foot forward and keeping the dream alive. When he saw some former Capitals teammates last weekend, Laich told them: “I’ll see you very soon.”
He didn’t mean in the AHL.
The most recent quote to go up on the white board at his apartment stresses the importance of not letting the way you’re measured by others affect the way you value yourself. It’s a fitting credo for a man who not only expects to get back to hockey’s highest level, but hopes to remain there for years to come.
“It’s still enjoyable to come to the rink every game,” said Laich. “I’m still very lucky to play the game, but make no mistake about it: I love NHL hockey. That’s what I love. That’s the level I love to compete and play at. That’s the driving engine.
“You don’t get to win a Stanley Cup playing in the minors so you never give up on something that you think about every single day.”
