U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions to the Oval Office at the White House to congratulate them on their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Sitting behind a desk with the players, coaches and members of the organization around him, Trump, who expressed himself as a hockey fan, said it was an honour to have them in his vicinity.
With a red Capitals home jersey on his Resolute desk, Trump described the Caps as "winners" and even believes they have an "awfully good" chance at bringing back Lord Stanley to Washington.
"You brought the Stanley Cup home," Trump said. "Thousands of adoring fans greeted you. They were all over the place. And I have a feeling you're going to be doing it again. You're champions. You have a champion's heart."
"I think you're going to be successful," Trump said. "Very proud of you guys. Good luck. We're going to be watching."
Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and captain Alex Ovechkin thanked Trump for the invitation that included a 45-minute tour of the White House.
“My speech is gonna be much easier than it was in the [championship] parade, citing last year's entertaining championship speech.
"It's huge honour for us to be here and meet you personally," said Ovechkin, the Capitals' Russian-born captain and playoff MVP. "We're going to try to (win) again. We have same team, experienced team, very good group of guys and we're going to try to do it again."
The president called Ovi "a very special athlete, a great player" and even compared him to baseball legend Babe Ruth.
Trump also made note of Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson's heroics in the post-season.
Carlson replied: "It's an honour to be here. I think all of us looked very much forward to it."
Two current Caps, Braden Holtby and Brett Connolly, as well as Devante Smith-Pelly, who's currently in the AHL with the Caps minor league affiliate, did not attend because of personal beliefs.
Commissioner Gary Bettman was also in attendance.
