Craig Laughlin ‘never faltered’ during a difficult year: his wife was diagnosed with a rare cancer and his mother died

Craig Laughlin was in a broadcast booth in Los Angeles, some 2,300 miles and three time zones from his family on Feb. 18.

When he’d left town on the Capitals’ charter plane for a six-game road trip a week earlier, everything seemed to be OK.

Well, as OK as things could be given the circumstances.

Laughlin was calling the Caps game for NBC Sports Washington, where he’s been the color commentator since 1990. On this particular night, Alex Ovechkin and his teammates were facing the Kings at Staples Center.

But just as the action started heating up on the ice, Laughlin’s cellphone began blowing up in the booth.

Things back home were no longer OK.

Linda, Laughlin’s wife of nearly 40 years, needed to be re-admitted to the hospital.

Eleven months earlier, she had been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of uterine cancer and she was feeling the ill-effects of all the radiation treatment.

>> Keep Reading