A banner night for the Cup champs
Ovechkin and the Capitals celebrate their title, then dominate Boston 7-0
WASHINGTON — A Stanley Cup championship banner rose to the rafters at the home of the Washington Capitals for the first time, and everyone in attendance Wednesday night got to relive the sheer excitement of it all.
Alex Ovechkin and the other players, who craned their necks to see the video montages on the overhead scoreboard — and couldn’t help but smile. Coaches, too, including new head man Todd Reirden. Not to mention the owner and the GM and the assistant equipment manager and anyone else on staff.
And, most importantly, the fans, decked out in their jerseys — most of them in the team’s main colour, red, so many with Ovechkin’s No. 8. They sang along to “We Are the Champions!” in full throat and shook their team-distributed glow sticks during a halfhour ceremony before Washington opened the regular season by beating the Boston Bruins 7-0 behind a pair of goals from Evgeny Kuznetsov and one apiece from Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie (just 24 seconds in), Nic Dowd, John Carlson and Lars Eller. Braden Holtly made 25 saves for a season-opening shutout.
They roared at any mention of “champions.” Or any clip of Ovechkin. Or, especially, when there were glimpses of “The Save” by Holtby in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, and Eller’s Cup-winning goal in Game 5, and Ovechkin kissing the trophy for the first time back on June 7. Each burst of cheers sounded as if the games from months ago were being played all over again.
The banner signifying the NHL championship was revealed toward the end of the festivities, slowly lifted to the ceiling, its rise paused long enough for the players to gather on the ice in front of it for photos, the Stanley Cup itself resting nearby on the ice.
There already were five red banners hanging from the rafters to signify some sort of accomplishment by the Capitals. None, of course, is quite as significant as the piece of material hoisted on this night.