WASHINGTON — Under bright blue skies and a warming spring sun, fans of the Washington Capitals gathered in downtown D.C. to cheer for the “boys of winter” on the eve of their first 2016 Stanley Cup playoff test — Thursday’s game at the Verizon Center against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“I go back to the bubble on the Beltway, the old Capital Centre,” said Patrick Rayner of Aspen Hill, one of several die-hard Caps fans who turned out for an afternoon rally on the steps of the Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square. “They’ve always been missing a piece in past years, but this time they seem to have the entire package.”
Fans posed for pictures with Slapshot, the Capitals’ mascot. They chanted “Let’s go, Caps” and “Rock the Red” in front of the historic building festooned with red balloons.
Cara Seligman, a recent George Mason University graduate, chose to study Caps’ great Alex Ovechkin in a leadership class. His attributes bode well for the team’s Stanley Cup hopes. “With his leadership, we got it,” Seligman said. “We totally got it.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, wearing a red wool suit, read an official proclamation to the rally: “I, the mayor of Washington D.C., do hereby proclaim April 14th in Washington as Rock the Red Day,” Bowser said to cheering fans.
Caps’ play-by-play announcer John Walton declared it a beautiful day, “where the boys of winter are ready to go into springtime.”
“This team is focused on winning the Stanley Cup,” Walton told the crowd.
