Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals to visit White House on Monday

The Washington Capitals will go to the White House on Monday to celebrate their Stanley Cup championship with President Trump, according to spokesmen for the team and the White House. 

The event, which was first reported by The Washington Post, has not yet been officially announced.

While several other title-winning sports teams have been disinvited from or declined to attend White House celebrations, that has not been the case for National Hockey League champions.

{mosads}The Pittsburgh Penguins, the previous Stanley Cup champions, visited Trump at the White House in October 2017.

Last year, Trump said the then-Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles were not welcome at the White House, citing national anthem protests. But several key members of the team had said they would not attend before Trump withdrew the invitation. 

The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors decided to forgo a White House visit with Trump and instead met with former President Obama in January. They visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture the previous February.

The Capitals won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history in June, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. It ended a 44-year Cup drought and a 26-year run without a major sports championship for the city of Washington, D.C.

Winger Devante Smith-Pelly, who is black, said after the victory that he would not visit the White House because “the things [Trump] spews are straight-up racist and sexist.” Smith-Pelly, however, is currently playing with the Capitals’ minor league affiliate in Hershey, Pa. 

Forward Brett Connolly also said he would not make the visit.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” he told ESPN last August, adding that it has “nothing to do with politics.”