Thanks to John Carlson’s sharpshooting skills, Brooks Laich is expected to miss at least two games with a facial laceration. The injury ends his streak of 257 consecutive games and leaves Nicklas Backstrom as the only player to have played in every game over the last three seasons.

So as #21 takes a well-deserved break to mend his pretty face heal up, we honor his Ironman prowess by reflecting back on the hockey world and the world in general three years ago.

Because the last time Brooks Laich missed a game…

• ...the Caps lost 3-2 in a shootout to the San Jose Sharks, proving the old adage, "know Brooks Laich, know win; no Brooks Laich, no win." The offense was provided by Shaone Morrisonn (from Matt Bradley and Boyd Gordon) and Brian Sutherby (from Donald Brashear and Jamie Heward).
• ...Bryan Muir had played in more games (19) than David Steckel (0) and Eric Fehr (14) combined
• ...the final chapter of the "Harry Potter" saga had not yet been released
• ...Laich’s offense on the year amounted to a whopping 6 goals and 6 assists in 52 games
• ...the DOW was at 12,647.48
• ...Chris Clark was en route to a 30-goal season
• ...Wizards' coach Eddie Jordan was three days removed from coaching the NBA All-Star Game - a game featuring Washington superstars Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler
• ...the Caps were in 14th place (23-28-10) in the East, and Tampa Bay led the Southeast Division with 71 points
• ...we had a Vice President who liked to drop f-bombs...oh, wait, nevermind.
• ...Jonathan Cheechoo was still known as a point-per-game player
• ...Matt Cooke had only been suspended once
• ...Bruce Boudreau was coaching the likes of Tomas Fleischmann, Eric Fehr, John Erskine and Jeff Schultz...in Hershey
• ...the Prime Minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, tendered his resignation
• ...among the top-ten scorers on the team were such gunslingers as Matt Pettinger, Boyd Gordon, Brian Pothier, Kris Beech and Ben Clymer
• ...the world had not yet met Justin Bieber
• ...Ron Wilson was coaching an underachieving team with little playoff succe-…huh.