Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Sol Tucker/ PMG
Washington, D.C–
It has been quite a number of years since anyone has been able to run in the streets of D.C in celebration of a sports team winning a Championship, tonight that day finally came for the Washington Capitals, who have gone 43 years as a franchise but have never been able to hoist Lord Stanley above their heads.
Game 5 was a ton of emotions for all fans in attendance at Capital One Arena and all around the city as it looked early on as the Vegas Knights were finally going to be able knock back on of the door and force a Game 6, well then there was that 3rd Period where the Caps just came back with dominance in the second half of the period and began their quest for glory.
No one could have been more happy about the situation than Alex Ovechkin himself, the MVP of the playoffs, who took the cup and skated with it all in front of their fans that had traveled to Vegas, but brought his good friend Nicklas Backstrom in on the fun since he has been there through the good and bad over the last 11 years.
After the game the 18,000 fans inside Capital One Arena took to the streets with the well over 50,000 outside to make for one big celebration that overtook most of the streets surrounding Chinatown and a three block radius. There was a heavy police presence early on so most of the people celebrating did not have much chance to cause any ruckus that would lead to property destructions.
The Caps will return home to Washington tomorrow via charter and look for the parade plans to be in the works for early next week. Some of the early information floating around have the parade going down Pennsylvania Avenue and concluding with a celebration at Freedom Plaza.