ARLINGTON, Va. — Of the six Game 7s Brooks Orpik played in before Wednesday, one clearly stood out: Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final in Detroit, when Orpik played for the Penguins.
For each player, the day started with an inspirational text message from team owner Mario Lemieux, ending with the words: “See you at center ice.”
“I remember we were staying at the MGM in Detroit,” Orpik recalled after Washington’s morning skate Wednesday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “We’d switched hotels like three times at that point in the series, because of all the superstitious guys who thought that was the reason we weren’t having any luck there.