Downtown Washington and outposts around the District and the suburbs turned red Thursday afternoon and evening, as fans turned out in unprecedented numbers to watch Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The area around Capital One Arena was filled with red for blocks in every direction hours; fans queued up in massive lines outside bars, outside restaurants, outside sandwich shops and outside liquor stores. Theye filled the G Street watch party between 7th and 9th Streets hours before the Washington Capitals began their quest to clinch their first Stanley Cup; thousands poured into a different watch party inside the arena, while outside they streamed in every direction.
Inside the arena, fans roared during pregame shots of the Capitals, roared during every near-miss, roared during the first intermission when Caps broadcasters led a round of “Let’s Go Caps!” When Washington killed a second-period power play, the noise inside the arena was ear-splitting. When Jakub Vrana scored on a breakaway moments later, the noise was … what’s louder than ear-splitting?
And outside, the fans weren’t just 20-somethings shot-gunning beers. There were senior citizens, and adults in work clothes, and a whole lot of people wearing red.
Andrew Blackden, 27, said he had been waiting his whole life for a something like this. He was not going to miss it.
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this from D.C.,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a lot tamer, and damn I’m glad it’s not. People are getting really into it, people who aren’t even big hockey fans. They’re just in it for the city, they’re in it for the love.”
A win, he said, would make up for all the times that fans have had “to sit there and hang our heads.”
“And walk out of stadiums and bars and think ‘this was supposed to be our year,’ ” he said.
Calvin Gidney, 13, stood near the front of the crowd, wearing a red shirt and a hockey helmet. He held a sign that read “One More Win.”
“I don’t know how to describe it,” he said, when asked what a Caps win would mean. “Literally like six months ago, I had a dream about us making the Cup. It’s just been a long time since D.C.’s had a championship.”
[Game 5 of Capitals-Golden Knights: Wasington with a chance to clinch]
That was part of it; none of Washington’s major pro sports team has won a title since the Redskins’ Super Bowl triumph in 1992. The weather played a part, too; it was mild and beautiful, with temperatures in the low 70s.
And so fans poured into the city: at National Harbor and the Bullpen outside Nationals Park, at the Wharf and the U.S. Navy Memorial, at town centers in Fairfax County and Montgomery County, and inside every bar and restaurant within blocks of the arena.
It’s not exaggeration to say there had never been a night quite like this in Washington. When the Bullets won a championship 40 years ago, the team was based in Maryland. When the Redskins were winning Super Bowls, Chinatown was a far different neighborhood. And so this was something new for Washington.
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