Culture

Washington Capitals win Stanley Cup, turn Twitter #ALLCAPS

From a broken game clock to only-in-Vegas indecent exposure, the DC team's first championship had it all.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper headshot
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
2 min read

Some teams win championships year after year, but others come so close, only to be regularly disappointed. There's nothing quite like that sheer euphoria when the team that's let you down for decades finally climbs to the top level in their sport.

And on Thursday night, the Washington Capitals and their supporters finally felt that overwhelming joy, when the Caps defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 to claim their first-ever Stanley Cup.

The nation's capital went a bit nuts.

Caps' star Alexander Ovechkin was celebrated in many of the tweets. The team captain won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP with 15 post-season goals, including 10 on the road.

And Caps right wing T.J. Oshie won the hearts of many when he talked about his father battling Alzheimer's disease. "My dad, he doesn't remember a lot of stuff these days," Oshie said. "But I'll tell you what, this one will stick with him forever. You can guarantee that."

The Vegas Golden Knights lost the Cup, but they had an amazing year, considering this was the team's first-ever season.

As Ovechkin celebrated, a woman chose that moment to, uh, press her chest up against the glass. Fans -- and many of the Caps -- stopped partying for a second to stare. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but sometimes gets nationally televised.

And in another moment that felt very representative of Vegas, the city where the casinos never want gamblers to know what time it is, the game clock and the televised clock both froze in the waning minutes of the game. (They were fixed with 30 seconds left.)

The Caps' win was tweeted about by everyone from politicians to other sports teams to the Stanley Cup itself.

If you're a fan of sports championships, this insane week continues, with Game 4 of the NBA Finals scheduled for Friday night between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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