The 2022-23 season ended for the Washington Capitals with the team hoping for its first summer of the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2014, a campaign ravaged by injuries, and a slew of starting changes for the club as well as (almost-filled) vacancies behind the bench to be filled.
Notable players who missed time last season with injury were the 2022 squad as well as Connor Brown, who was acquired by General Manager Brian McClellan in a deal with the Ottawa Senators. After just four games into his junior season, Brown tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a game against the Vancouver Canucks, missing the entire regular season after undergoing surgery to repair the torn ligament.
“Honestly, you know what, the surgery was amazing,” Brown said in an appearance on Mets are down with Luke Gazdek podcast, “It was great looking [Capitals right wing] Tom Wilson did the surgery, and so he was kind of able to help select the surgeon, and the rehab was going really well. I’m six months away from surgery, and I feel great again.”
Brown, who was acquired in large part to fill the void left by Wilson’s absence from ACL rehab, described the moment of injury as “abnormal”.
“I knew something was wrong,” Brown revealed, “I didn’t even try [to put weight on it]…and I went down the tunnel. I remember I took a few steps down the tunnel and kind of collapsed, getting my knees in the tunnel.”
“More than that I couldn’t believe it, you know, I really felt, I could tell it was a serious injury, it was a serious injury… It was definitely deflating. And as you go through something like that, you learn a lot about yourself… It’s all you can do.” It is to work as hard as you can, to dig yourself out of this hole…”
Brown is likely out of the Capitals for the season after undergoing anterior cruciate ligament surgery but has not been ruled out
Brown, who turns 29 entering unrestricted free agency July 1, is in a very different position than entering free market, as shown here by NoVa Caps’ Jon Sorensen. While his future as the Washington Capitals is unclear at best, the district made a positive impression on the Browns.
“I loved it, I loved it, honestly, great guys,” Brown told Gazdic. “This team, this core has been around since I was a kid, an NHL fan.”
“Honestly, it was a lot of fun getting to know her [Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin] Ove, John Carlson and Tommy Wilson, good Toronto boy. They have a great locker room and there is a reason they have won several President’s Cups, Cup. You can kind of see it there, they’re very confident.”
Ovechkin and Wilson, whose absence from the start of the season left a huge hole in the Caps squad, are part of the veteran team’s core and arguably its most important players. While the Browns did not play for them for long, his time as Capital left a positive impression on the team’s powerful wingers.
“He’s one in a million”, Brown replied when asked to describe Ovechkin, “He’s just a beast of a man… He’s just an anomaly, he’s something special. His charisma and personality are great for a game. He was so much fun.”
Brown and Wilson both hail from Toronto, and having played against each other and now in the NHL, Wilson’s success is no surprise to his teammate.
“It’s just like, made in a lab. But it’s not accidental either. Here’s the thing, you’re playing against these guys; I’ve played against Tommy Wilson since we were five…we never got to play.” In the same club.
“It’s nice to watch a guy like that pursue his career. It’s no accident where he’s at, and he’s had the kind of career he’s had so far. He trains hard and he does his due diligence, and his diet is specific. Every point of preparation, he’s prepared.”
While the Browns’ future as a Capital is uncertain, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ sixth-round pick appears to approach the process with an open mind. “
“There are a lot of moving parts to knowing where you’re going to land,” Brown said, “whether it’s you personally, or your family… It’s almost better, I’ve tried to put my ideas into everything.
“Focus on getting better, focus on being excited to go home. It’s hard to do, it’s hard to say ‘I want to be here’, ‘I want to be there, that would be a perfect situation for me’, because a lot of times it just won’t It ends…the unknown is obviously tough,” says Brown, who is expecting his first child.
“I have a lot of unknowns coming up, where I’m going to be. For me, I just make sure I’m personally as prepared as I can be, and I let the chips fall where they can have faith in the universe.”
To hear Brown’s full conversation, click here here
By Michael Fleetwood