(This story will update throughout the day with coverage of the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup championship parade; continue to refresh for the latest news.)
STORIES FROM THE CROWD | HEAR FROM PLAYERS | TRAFFIC UPDATES | PARADE DETAILS
Still glowing five days after winning the Stanley Cup, the Washington Capitals and their fans celebrated the franchise’s first NHL championship with a parade down Constitution Avenue Tuesday morning. Diehards congregated by the parade’s stage on the Mall before 4 a.m., Metro trains and downtown streets were clogged with fans clad in red jerseys and T-shirts, and tens of thousands lined the parade route for Washington’s first major championship celebration in 26 years.
A line of 47 vehicles — a combination of fire engines, convertibles and buses wrapped in “All Ours” logos featuring the Stanley Cup — assembled to move past the Lincoln Memorial just after 11 a.m., before heading east on Constitution. The buses were loaded with longtime season-ticket holders, Capitals staffers, elected officials — and, of course, the players and coaches, while the convertibles carried the team’s broadcasters and other notable figures. The final vehicle included captain Alex Ovechkin, veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik, team owner Ted Leonsis and the Stanley Cup.
Though the official route began six blocks away, hundreds of fans were at the intersection of 23rd and Constitution to watch the start, while a firetruck leading the procession honked that familiar “Let’s Go Caps!” refrain. The parade will follow Constitution to 7th Street NW, then make a right turn before ending with a rally at the Mall.
As the parade got underway, Queen’s “We Are The Champions” — a team anthem since Thursday night — blared from the speakers on the stage at the Mall. A few minutes later, the video boards to the left and the right of the stage began showing live footage from the parade route. Some of the vehicles were draped in banners reading “Ovechkin for President.”
Haley Skarupa, a local member of gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey team, was covering the parade for NBC Sports Washington. She signed autographs and posed for photos with her gold medal, even letting one small girl wear it around her neck.
“I’ve never seen one before,” one fan said.
“Stanley Cups and gold medals!” another fan shouted. “That’s what Washington does!”
[The Caps’ wild weekend with the Stanley Cup in Washington]
Fans began arriving before dawn for the festivities. Justin Bryam, a 23-year-old from Frederick, Maryland, was one of the first on the scene. He figured he had suffered through a lifetime of heartbreak rooting for Washington’s pro sports teams, so he wanted Tuesday to be meticulously planned and memorable. He drove from Maryland into the city on Monday night, crashed with a family member, was in an Uber by 4:45 a.m. and arrived at the mall around 5. Around 20 Capitals fans were already there.
“It was still dark. Cold and dark,” he said shortly after 8, looking out at a crowd that had grown by thousands behind him. “To see this city come together and embrace hockey is just unbelievable to watch.”
“I’ve always believed nothing brings a city closer together than a winning sports team,” Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said last Thursday as the team celebrated on the ice in Las Vegas, a message he repeated as parade day approached. The scenes Tuesday morning seemed to bear out his words; cars driving down Constitution Avenue honked to the beat of the team’s “Let’s Go Caps” chant, an ice resurfacer drove down a normally gridlocked city street, lightposts were adorned with new banners paying tribute to the Capitals, and social media sites were flooded with images of massive crowds.
“Now we can celebrate all together and remember this moment for all our lives,” Alex Ovechkin, the team captain, wrote on Instagram Monday afternoon. “Time to party Caps fans!!!!” By Tuesday morning, he had swapped his skates for dancing shoes as the players congregated for a team photo at Capital One Arena.
A little later, he hopped off a bus with his new best friend, the guy named Stanley whose acquaintance he made Thursday night.
The weather was perfect for a parade, featuring partly to mostly sunny skies, with highs in the 70s — ideal weather for starting a party that was decades in the making plenty early.
Glenda Kamman, 60, stood on the Mall with her son, Jason Levick, 35, hours before the parade. Both wore red Caps jerseys — Braden Holtby for Kamman, T.J. Oshie for Levick — and Kamman had red dye in her hair. “I can’t grow a beard so I figured, you know, do something radical,” she explained.
[The Stanley Cup revealed Washington as a real sports town]
The pair had watched the Caps win the Cup together at Kamman’s home, “literally on the edge of our seats,” as Levick put it. “Then we just kind of yelled and hugged each other,” Kamman said. “We’ve been waiting for this.”
Mother and son could not afford game tickets, she said, but could do this. “It’s amazing,” Kamman said. “It’s just amazing. It’s breathtaking.”
Parade spectators arrive on 7th St. (John McDonnell / The Washington Post)
Hear from players
Holtby on the madcap fun
The Caps team has gone to great lengths already to share the Cup with fans — both in impromptu bar outings and in organized events.
“We have a team that just likes to have fun — enjoy the people around us, who’ve supported us through everything,” goaltender Braden Holtby told NBC Sports Washington shortly before the parade began. “We’re not scared to be ourselves. It’s just been a lot of fun.”
Holtby, of course, came up big in the playoffs but has also had a starring role in the days following the Game 5 clincher, appearing on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and also in the fountain at Georgetown’s waterfront.
“There was no hesitation to get in,” Holtby said. “It was rather to judge the depth so we didn’t give ourselves concussions or anything like that. It wasn’t as deep as we thought it was going to be, that’s for sure.” — Rick Maese
Stories from the crowd
‘It’s very American’
Among the handful of people along Constitution Avenue not decked out in red were Swedish tourists Krister Enstjaerna, 44, his wife, Annelie, 50, and their children, Eliot, 9, and Engla, 12, from Stockholm.
They had learned of the parade only after they arrived in Washington on Friday. They were amazed at the size of the crowd and the exuberance.
“It’s very American,“ Annelie said. In Sweden, she said, such sports celebrations are much more low-key.
“This is huge,” she said as she stood at 17th and Constitution Avenue.
She wondered what the team had won to prompt so much hoopla.
The Stanley Cup, she was told. — Michael E. Ruane
Unleash the Fury
With the parade still half an hour from starting, Capitals PA announcer Wes Johnson took the mic on the stage on the National Mall asked fans to participate in a dress rehearsal of the team’s legendary “Unleash the Fury” cry.
“They don’t have to hear us all the way in Vegas for this one,” Johnson said, “but feel free to cut loose.”
Roars from the crowd gathered on Constitution Avenue and chants of “Let’s go Caps!” could be heard from two blocks away. — Scott Allen
The winning call
Devante Smith-Pelly scored Game 5’s winning goal with close to 8 minutes to play. That’s when Capitals radio announcer John Walton started planning the call that will define the District’s first sports championship in 26 years.
Walton had sketched out some thoughts earlier in the day. He wanted to reflect on how long Capitals’ fans had waited for the moment, all the playoff disappointments, how resilient the team had been on its playoff run.
Then Lars Eller iced the puck with less than a second to play.
“I think I said something like, ‘Drop the puck, and release the hounds,’” Walton said Tuesday waiting in the parade’s staging area at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue.
Close, but not quite.
“And as the puck drops,” he bellowed on the radio, “the words D.C. fans have been waiting to hear since 1974: The Capitals are the 2018 Stanley Cup champions. It’s not a dream. It’s not a desert mirage. It’s Lord Stanley, and he is coming to Washington.” — Jacob Bogage
A musical performance
It was the kind of scene that could only happen in Washington: The D.C. Fire Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums playing “God Bless America” in front of a monument to Abraham Lincoln before celebrating the city’s championship hockey team in a parade down Constitution Avenue.
It is many of the firefighters’ favorite set, says Pipe Major Jim Mazzara. He plays the first notes of “God Bless America” on the bagpipes, and the rest of the group singing the words. Often times, the crowd joins in.
This pipe and drum society was formed in 2002. It is full of District sports fans. This is their first championship parade. If you put it that way, Mazzara says, it’s easy to get emotional.
So they don’t. They see it as another “deployment” they’ve drilled for all year, events like funerals or formal ceremonies.
“We can’t let it hit us yet,” Mazzara said. “If we let it hit us, we’ll bomb it.”
It’s just that this time, they had special hats made. They say “DCFD” in red block letters, with the Capitals’ eagle logo in the middle. — Jacob Bogage
Leo “Chico” Cabrales, a former marine and retired Arlington police officer, thanks the Caps. (Ava Wallace / Washington Post)
Vietnam vet says thanks
Leo “Chico” Cabrales, a former Marine and retired Arlington police officer, was stopped and thanked for his service a handful of times as he made his way to his spot near the start of the parade route.
But it was Cabrales who wanted to thank the Capitals, for bringing a championship he never though he would see to Washington.
“It’s been a while, we’ve been suffering fans. I gave up my Redskins season tickets four years ago. Couldn’t do it anymore. But I’m happy as hell now.” — Ava Wallace
‘Pure adrenaline’
Freddie Noel grew up a hockey fan in Toledo, a youth player who rooted for the Colorado Avalanche at that franchise’s peak. As stars like Joe Sakic and Petr Forsberg retired, he lost his fandom and enthusiasm for the sport. And then in 2004, along came a thrilling rookie forward from Russia who played for a team in the nation’s capital.
“Ever since Ovi came in the league,” Noel said, “it was fun to watch hockey again.”
Noel, 34, recalled the origins of his unusual union with Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals from the front row in front of the stage a little past 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. When the Capitals made the Stanley Cup finals, he vowed he’d make it to the parade if they won.
And so Monday, Noel worked first shift at his construction job, napped for two hours, loaded into his car at 9:45 p.m. and drove 7 1/2 hours overnight, by himself, to Washington. He took a brief tour of the city, snapped sightseeing photos of Capital One Arena and around The Mall, found a parking garage and headed to the front.
“I’m running on pure adrenaline right now,” Noel said, wearing his red Ovechkin sweater. “I would do it again in a heartbeat.” — Adam Kilgore and Roman Stubbs
‘A floating holiday’
Erin Wesol went all out. (Michael E. Ruane / Washington Post)
Decked out in his red and white striped sunglasses, blue Capitals hat, and red beads, Nick Wesol, 39, had taken the day off — “kind of” — gathered his wife, Erin, 39 and kids, Beckett, 8, and Quinn, 6, and come in from Bristol to be part of history.
He works as an engineer, but this was a day not to be missed. “Everybody knew I was coming down here,” he said as she stood in the sun just north of the Washington Monument. “Everybody’s aware. It was one of those floating holidays.”
He said he wanted to be present for several reasons. “My kids have never experienced anything like this before,” he said. “It doesn’t happen but probably once in a generation especially around D.C.”
“What’s nice about it, too, is it brings a lot of people together especially cause this town is kind of transient, “ he continued. “You have a lot of people coming in and out and I think this kind of get everybody together and they can enjoy it and you couldn’t ask for a better day.” — Michael E. Ruane
Say hello to the Stanley Cans (a Stanley Cup made of beer and a colander.) (John McDonnell / The Washington Post)
A family during rush hour
Two hours before the parade, Steve DeFalco, 42, of Arlington, stood with his wife, Jenny, 41, children, Mia, 9, Hank, 6, and a clot of red-clad allies hollering “let’s go Caps!” at the passing rush hour traffic.
Kids yelled. Parents blew long horns. A guy in a passing trash truck waved.
Steve was already weary from blowing the long red horn. “Light headed,” he said. “Got to teach the kids how to do it. I can’t make it another two hours.”
Steve and his wife are season ticket holders and had flown to Las Vegas to witness the Caps’ triumph.
“I couldn’t not be there,” he said.
“It’s such a momentous thing for the city. I am so happy for the city. We’ve got so much angst.”
He hoped he and his group could sustain their exuberance, as they manned a stretch of side walk beneath an elm tree and adjacent to a long line of tan ports potties.
“But we’ve got kid energy on our side,” he said. “And that can power you through a lot.” — Michael E. Ruane
And…it’s an inflatable Stanley Cup! (John McDonnell / The Washington Post)
A Stanley Cup out of kitchen implements
Dillon Weinberg, a 17-year-old Caps fan, stood on the Mall on Tuesday morning with a replica Stanley Cup, constructed out of a bucket and kitchen bowls.
“It’s great to see everyone out here,” he said. “It’s just great to see us celebrate for once, instead of being on the losing end like all the other years. It’s good to have this happy vibe.”
The Caps win “brings everyone together, in a sense,” Weinberg said.
“Everyone’s our here for the Caps,” he said. “There’s thousands of people out, on the street, celebrating after we won. It was just a really great scene. It’s going to be another great scene today.” — Sarah Larimer
Traffic updates
Busy on Metro
By 9:30 a.m., Metro reported that garages were full at Rockville, Vienna, Branch Avenue, East Falls Church, Rhode Island Avenue, Morgan Boulevard, Grosvenor Wiehle-Reston, Ft. Totten, Forest Glen, and Shady Grove (west garage).
There were no service disruptions by late morning, although at least one train had offloaded for a door problem earlier in the morning.
The system was also hosting fans of all stripes and walks of life. The agency shared surveillance of a deer bursting through the tunnels at Crystal City station early Tuesday morning, adding “Seems like *everyone* wants to get aboard the @Capitals train this morning.” Metro reported that the deer safely left the system through the tunnel toward Reagan National Airport. — Faiz Siddiqui
Parade details
Metro is running rush-hour service throughout the day, and fans are encouraged to use mass transit or ride sharing, with parking near the route limited. The busiest Metro stations are expected to be Archives, Arlington Cemetery, Foggy Bottom, Federal Triangle, Metro Center, Federal Center SW, L’Enfant Plaza, Smithsonian and Gallery Place. A full list of parking restrictions and road closures is available here.
Here’s where to watch the parade. (Via Google maps)
The parade included a flyover of four F-16 Fighting Falcons from the District of Columbia’s Air National Guard at about 11:25 a.m. The jets flew up the Potomac and over near Independence and 23rd streets.
District Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton rose atop one bus, throwing trinkets to fans. The marching bands of Eastern and Ballou high schools, Capitals alumni, longtime season ticket holders and local television and radio personalities also rode in the parade.
Read more from The Post:
What to expect at the Capitals’ parade
Metro, road closures and parking info for the Capitals’ Stanley Cup parade
The Capitals held a Stanley Cup party, and everyone in Washington was invited
Capitals’ beer-drenched Stanley Cup party rages on at Nationals Park
‘It’s never easy,’ but Ted Leonsis delivered D.C. a title and a team to take pride in
‘So many memories’: Abe Pollin’s widow savors Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory
Fans react during a viewing party for Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final between the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights, Thursday, June 7, 2018, in Washington. (Nick Wass/Associated Press)
WASHINGTON — Nicklas Backstrom dreamed about the road less traveled.
Driving down Constitution Avenue on his way to each home game since his NHL debut in 2007, he imagined the street lined with overjoyed Washington Capitals fans.
“It always popped up in my head that one time we’re going to have a parade here, and finally that day is here,” Backstrom said.
It all becomes reality Tuesday when Backstrom and the Stanley Cup-champion Capitals give the city its first parade for a major pro sports team since the NFL’s Redskins in 1992. The parade is 26 years in the making for Washington sports fans who endured long, lean years of heartbreak.
“I don’t think anyone doubted what this city would do,” longtime Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman said. “It’s just a matter of getting there and having the ability to do it. They definitely held up their end of the bargain.”
Tens of thousands gathered for viewing parties of road playoff games on the way to the Capitals’ first championship since beginning play in 1974. They camped out on the streets to watch on giant video screens — the kinds of scenes more germane to presidential inaugurations in this town than sporting events.
“I thought it was really cool when we were even at home and everyone was outside and going nuts and they would show that right after we would score a goal,” defenseman John Carlson said. “I think that was probably one of the coolest moments of the playoffs for me and just seeing the support. ... I think we deserve it, and so do the fans.”
It has been a long time coming. Since the Redskins won the Super Bowl in January 1992, the 1998 Capitals were the only Washington team in the NHL, NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball to reach a league semifinal until this spring, a drought of 74 combined seasons without a championship.
When the Capitals took the Cup into the Nationals’ clubhouse on Saturday, coach Barry Trotz wanted players to know: “There’s no curse or anything. It’s all gone.” All they had to do to know that was look around the past two months to see the doubt being chipped away.
Nationals manager Davey Martinez, who texted with Trotz throughout the run, got his first real taste of Washington sports in the playoffs with the Chicago Cubs last year when he came out of the dugout seeing 50,000 fans in red and couldn’t hear himself think because it was so loud.
“Right then and there I said, ‘Hey, these people, they’re in, they love it,’” Martinez recalled. “This is exciting. And the city then rallied this year around the Caps. I get it. It was awesome. It was good for the city. Good for us. I know our boys were all in, they were excited about everything. I told them yesterday, ‘Let’s just keep it rolling. The city’s all-in.’”
Washington isn’t a city accustomed to being all-in because of the scars of so many playoff failures over the years. Longtime Capitals season-ticket holder Jimmy Patterson said fans became reluctant to get together to watch games because the mood at the end of the night wasn’t something anyone wanted to endure in a group setting.
That’s part of what made the public gatherings for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final and throughout the Stanley Cup Final so remarkable. Exorcising franchise-long demons by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round seemed to free fans to actually enjoy themselves.
“It showed what they were capable of and shows if you get to that level, they’re going to match it or even step it up a little bit more than the actual players,” Zimmerman said.
Fans celebrating the Capitals beating the Penguins led ESPN’s Michael Wilbon — a former Washington Post columnist — to call D.C. a “minor league sports town.” It’s not the first knock on Washington, though 14 years of playing baseball in the city has given Zimmerman some clarity on explaining that it’s not Boston, Chicago, New York or Philadelphia, and he doesn’t think it has to be.
“This is such an interesting city because not many people are from here, so it’s hard to be a Boston or a Chicago,” Zimmerman said. “That’s a generational sports town. So it’s nothing against (Washington). They shouldn’t be like that. They have no reason to be like that.
“A lot of these people move here for work in their early to mid-20s or come here even later than that and they adopt a team. This is what happens nowadays: Everyone compares everything. Just let it be. Let it be what it is. We have great fans and obviously if you make the playoffs and get to a Stanley Cup finals, you have really great fans just like any city would.”
Thousands of fans are expected to watch the parade, from 17th to 7th on Constitution. Trotz has been thinking about something like this since he arrived in 2014.
“You start thinking about, ‘Well, what would it mean?’ and then you think about a possible parade on one of the most famous streets in all the world, really, and it’s sort of now coming into play,” Trotz said. “It’s going to come true.”
___
More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals
___
Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SWhyno
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Washington (CNN) A little snow will bring Washington, DC, to a grinding halt. But the anticipated storm of Washington Capitals fans descending on the nation's capital isn't enough to shut down the federal government.
The US government will remain open during Tuesday's victory parade for the 2018 Stanley Cup winners, the Office of Personnel Management announced Monday.
The White House is also encouraging federal agencies to allow its employees two hours to attend the parade, which will begin at 11 a.m. ET and run along Constitution Avenue in downtown Washington.
Government employees are also being given the option to work from home or take the day off if they wish to avoid the sea of red.
The Capitals' win last week over the Las Vegas Golden Knights marks its first championship title in franchise history.
Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nicklas Backstrom dreamed about the road less traveled.
Driving down Constitution Avenue on his way to each home game since his NHL debut in 2007, he imagined the street lined with overjoyed Washington Capitals fans.
“It always popped up in my head that one time we’re going to have a parade here, and finally that day is here,” Backstrom said.
It all becomes reality Tuesday when Backstrom and the Stanley Cup-champion Capitals give the city its first parade for a major pro sports team since the NFL’s Redskins in 1992. The parade is 26 years in the making for Washington sports fans who endured long, lean years of heartbreak.
“I don’t think anyone doubted what this city would do,” longtime Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman said. “It’s just a matter of getting there and having the ability to do it. They definitely held up their end of the bargain.”
Tens of thousands gathered for viewing parties of road playoff games on the way to the Capitals’ first championship since beginning play in 1974. They camped out on the streets to watch on giant video screens — the kinds of scenes more germane to presidential inaugurations in this town than sporting events.
“I thought it was really cool when we were even at home and everyone was outside and going nuts and they would show that right after we would score a goal,” defenseman John Carlson said. “I think that was probably one of the coolest moments of the playoffs for me and just seeing the support. … I think we deserve it, and so do the fans.”
It has been a long time coming. Since the Redskins won the Super Bowl in January 1992, the 1998 Capitals were the only Washington team in the NHL, NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball to reach a league semifinal until this spring, a drought of 74 combined seasons without a championship.
When the Capitals took the Cup into the Nationals’ clubhouse on Saturday, coach Barry Trotz wanted players to know: “There’s no curse or anything. It’s all gone.” All they had to do to know that was look around the past two months to see the doubt being chipped away.
Nationals manager Davey Martinez, who texted with Trotz throughout the run, got his first real taste of Washington sports in the playoffs with the Chicago Cubs last year when he came out of the dugout seeing 50,000 fans in red and couldn’t hear himself think because it was so loud.
“Right then and there I said, ‘Hey, these people, they’re in, they love it,'” Martinez recalled. “This is exciting. And the city then rallied this year around the Caps. I get it. It was awesome. It was good for the city. Good for us. I know our boys were all in, they were excited about everything. I told them yesterday, ‘Let’s just keep it rolling. The city’s all-in.'”
Washington isn’t a city accustomed to being all-in because of the scars of so many playoff failures over the years. Longtime Capitals season-ticket holder Jimmy Patterson said fans became reluctant to get together to watch games because the mood at the end of the night wasn’t something anyone wanted to endure in a group setting.
That’s part of what made the public gatherings for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final and throughout the Stanley Cup Final so remarkable. Exorcising franchise-long demons by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round seemed to free fans to actually enjoy themselves.
“It showed what they were capable of and shows if you get to that level, they’re going to match it or even step it up a little bit more than the actual players,” Zimmerman said.
Fans celebrating the Capitals beating the Penguins led ESPN’s Michael Wilbon — a former Washington Post columnist — to call D.C. a “minor league sports town.” It’s not the first knock on Washington, though 14 years of playing baseball in the city has given Zimmerman some clarity on explaining that it’s not Boston, Chicago, New York or Philadelphia, and he doesn’t think it has to be.
“This is such an interesting city because not many people are from here, so it’s hard to be a Boston or a Chicago,” Zimmerman said. “That’s a generational sports town. So it’s nothing against (Washington). They shouldn’t be like that. They have no reason to be like that.
“A lot of these people move here for work in their early to mid-20s or come here even later than that and they adopt a team. This is what happens nowadays: Everyone compares everything. Just let it be. Let it be what it is. We have great fans and obviously if you make the playoffs and get to a Stanley Cup finals, you have really great fans just like any city would.”
Thousands of fans are expected to watch the parade, from 17th to 7th on Constitution. Trotz has been thinking about something like this since he arrived in 2014.
“You start thinking about, ‘Well, what would it mean?’ and then you think about a possible parade on one of the most famous streets in all the world, really, and it’s sort of now coming into play,” Trotz said. “It’s going to come true.”
___
More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals
___
Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SWhyno
Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
