Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin holds up the Stanley Cup during a victory parade on June 12, 2018, in Washington.

Alex Brandon, Pool / AP

Well, well, well—look who’s headed to the White House. Long after the Capitals’ celebratory bender has subsided, the Stanley Cup-winning team is going to 1600 Penn next week. The hockey team will celebrate with the president on Monday, reports The Washington Post, adding that the precise plans are still in flux with a private tour of the historic building and a meeting in the Oval Office. There will be no official ceremony and the event is closed to the media.

While it’s long been a tradition for championship teams to make a stop at the White House, that has changed under President Donald Trump. He has cancelled or disinvited teams including the Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia Eagles, after players said they wouldn’t show.

The hockey team has said that players can decide whether they want to be a part of the visit with the president. Devante Smith-Pelly, a left wing for the winning team last season, told Canada’s Postmedia last year that he wouldn’t attend a White House event if the Caps became champions. “The things that [Trump] spews are straight-up racist and sexist,” Smith-Pelly said before Game 5 of the finals. “Some of the things he’s said are pretty gross. I’m not too into politics, so I don’t know all his other views, but his rhetoric I definitely don’t agree with.”

Smith-Pelly isn’t the only one who voiced such a concern—Brett Connolly told The Score in August that he wouldn’t be a part of a White House visit. “I think there’ll be a few guys not going,” Connolly said at the time. “It has nothing to do with politics, it’s about what’s right and wrong, and we’ll leave it at that.”

On Friday, goaltender Braden Holtby (who, like Connolly, is Canadian) said that he too would be skipping the White House trip. “I’ve got to stay true to my values, and I’m going respectfully decline the offer,” he told reporters. Holtby, an advocate for LGBT rights, represents the Caps at D.C.’s pride parade. “For me, it’s just a personal thing. I believe in what I believe in, and in order to stick to those values, I think I have to do what I feel is right, but that doesn’t make a difference on everyone else’s decision. We stick by every single teammate we have and their decision.”

But other members of the team have expressed enthusiasm about the visit, including captain Alex Ovechkin. “Yeah, I’m looking forward. I can’t wait,” Ovechkin told Russian Machine Never Breaks. “I never been there. I want to take pictures around it. It will be fun.” Key players TJ Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom similarly told RMNB they were excited.

Owner Ted Leonsis told the Washington Post this past fall that “the players and the coaching staff have to decide” if the Caps would visit the White House as a team. “I’m not going to influence, and if we go to the White House, I will go to the White House.”

Some members of the team snapped a photo with senior White House advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in Georgetown during their debaucherous post-win weekend this past June.

Now to the real question: will Trump serve the Caps fast food, as he did for the past two teams that visited?

This post has been updated with new information about the White House visit and Braden Holtby’s decision not to attend.

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