President Donald Trump, center, hosts the 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals hockey team in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 25, 2019.

Susan Walsh / AP Photo

The Capitals went to the White House on Monday to meet with President Donald Trump and celebrate last June’s Stanley Cup win.

Most of the team (goalie Braden Holtby and forwards Brett Connolly and Devante Smith-Pelly, who was reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, declined the invitation) met with the president at the Oval Office after taking a tour of 1600 Penn. The New York Times noted the confluence in timing for the event: “A day after President Trump reveled in the apparent fizzling of a two-year effort to prosecute him for possible illicit coordination with Russia during the 2016 campaign, Washington’s most prominent Moscow native arrived at the White House on Monday to celebrate.”

But this isn’t about the Mueller report! This is about hockey, baby. Here’s what we learned from the meeting:

  • Donald Trump is a big fan of everybody involved: The president kicked off his speech by talking about how he’s a fan of hockey and, more specifically, the Capitals. Then he turned to team owner Ted Leonsis, and said, “Ted, I’m your fan, too, if you want to know the truth,” before giving him a playful tap. (“That’s very nice, Mr. President,” Leonsis responded.) The president then looked at team captain Alex Ovechkin, and said, “This guy, I have no choice but to be his fan.” Which gets us to …
  • Alex Ovechkin has big hands: Apparently, the president thinks Ovechkin is, “something special, look at those hands,” before shaking the player’s hand and giving it a nice pat. Later, when Trump mentions Ovechkin again, he asks, “Where’s Ivanka? She was back there, she’s a friend, and she’s a tremendous fan. Alexander the great, they call him,” before reading off impressive stats about Ovechkin and responding in real time. “Wow, that’s not bad, right?” Trump said to laughter, after learning that Ovechkin was the top-scoring player in the league. “That’s like Babe Ruth.” Trump told Ovechkin, “We’re going to all be watching you in a few weeks,” because apparently, he is more of a fan of the playoffs than regular season games. (With 44 wins this season, the Caps are currently first the the Metropolitan Division with a few weeks left before playoffs begin. While they haven’t technically clinched the playoffs, it’s a near certainty they’ll make it to the postseason.)
  • Trump thinks the Caps win was so captivating to D.C. that he couldn’t get anything done at the time: The president brought up this idea twice in the nearly 8 minute event. “They won something last year, and it was just, that’s all people wanted to talk about,” Trump said at the outset of the meeting. “I couldn’t get them focused on other things that we deal with, which are very important. They were all about the Capitals.” The president returned to that notion later during the Oval Office visit: “In Washington, that’s what they want to talk about,” Trump said of the Caps’ big win last summer. “They don’t want to talk about anything else. I can’t get their subject onto anything else, so you gotta win quickly, okay, because we have to get back to work, but I think you’re going to do really fantastically well.” As a quick reminder, when the Caps won the Cup in June 2018, the big national news centered around the Trump administration separating families at the border.
  • The Caps have “a champion’s heart,” per Trump: The president appears sure that the Caps are going for a two-fer, and will bring back the Stanley Cup for another year. “You brought the Stanley Cup home. Thousands of adoring fans greeted you, they were all over the place,” said Trump. “And I have a feeling you’re going to be doing it again. You’re champions, you have a champion’s heart, your owner’s been so fantastic. He’s kept this team together … You’re winners in the highest sense. It’s very tough to win, it’s very tough to go through all those teams, and I really tell you, I think you’re going to have an awfully good chance of doing it again.”
  • But no pressure: Trump acknowledged that the expectation of another win could create additional stress for the team. “We don’t want to put too much pressure,” he said. “A lot of times you’re better off saying, ‘Eeeh, it doesn’t matter.’ Takes the pressure off. But you have nothing, no pressure, because you won, and this makes it easier. Wouldn’t you say that’s true, Gary?” Trump turned to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who demurred. “We just want excitement,” Bettman responded.

“Very proud of you guys. Good luck,” Trump said as he wrapped up the public meet-and-greet. “We’re going to be watching. Everyone, get the same number of goals.”

Here’s the video of the meeting in full:

Filed Under: alex ovechkin, capitals, donald trump, meanwhile at the white house,