President Trump welcomes Capitals, encourages them towards a second Stanley Cup
By Isabelle Khurshudyan Isabelle Khurshudyan Reporter covering the Washington Capitals Email Bio Follow March 25 at 5:08 PM President Trump sat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, a red Washington Capitals jersey, No. 45, splayed before him and the Stanley Cup to his right.
During Monday afternoon’s lighthearted ceremony, Trump marveled at the size of Russian captain Alex Ovechkin’s hands and then listed off his many career accomplishments, adding that his daughter Ivanka is “a friend and she’s a tremendous fan.
“Thank you very much for having us,” a clean-shaven Ovechkin told Trump in the Oval Office. “It’s huge honor for us to be here and meet you personally. We’re going to try to do it again. We have same team, experienced team, very good group of guys, and we’re going to try to do it again.” The Capitals were the first Washington team to be exclusively honored since the Redskins in 1992, and there was little fanfare for what is intended to be the highest public honor for a team. The organization declined requests to make players, coaches or staff available to reporters after the visit. The Capitals had announced previously that there was no planned media access, but then the White House decided to open the Oval Office to pool reporters for a photo opportunity around 3 p.m.
Players expected backlash from some fans for the visit, but the Capitals have vowed that they won’t let an event designed to honor their championship divide them as they try to win another when the playoffs start next month. Players declining a White House visit isn’t unprecedented in hockey. In 2012, then-Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, an American, skipped the team’s White House ceremony, citing his political and ideological differences with the Obama administration.
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