The Summer of Stanley has been wild and glorious.
We’ve seen Barry Trotz fire a rifle and ride a horse, Nicklas Backstrom go on a boat ride in the Baltic Sea, Brooks Orpik dish up a massive ice cream sundae, and Alex Ovechkin eat caviar out of the Stanley Cup. We’ve seen parties and Cup stands which damaged the NHL’s championship trophy.
But which Capital had the best Cup celebration? Tom Wilson and Devante Smith-Pelly spoke with Yahoo Sports during Biosteel Camp and and revealed their favs.
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From flamethrowers to margaritas, @tom_wilso loves seeing his teammates spend their summer with the Stanley Cup. #CAMP @capitals pic.twitter.com/m0kJ8zsCr3
— Yahoo Canada Sports (@YahooCASports) August 28, 2018
According to Wilson, the honor of best Cup party belonged to Dmitry Orlov.
“Orly’s flamethrowers were pretty crazy,” Wilson said. “I don’t even know where he was. It’s been fun to watch your teammates and for me that was the most special part of winning–watching your teammates lift the cup and taking it all in and watching them on their Cup day. It makes for a pretty entertaining offseason for sure.”
Orlov, cradling the Stanley Cup in his arms, entered his private party in his hometown of Novokuznetsk, Russia, with multiple men firing flames high into the air.
Meanwhile, Devante Smith-Pelly also gave Orlov’s fiery entrance high marks.
Who has had the best Stanley Cup celebration this summer? @smithpelly23 hands out the grades #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/8jPFLwdJFV
— Yahoo Canada Sports (@YahooCASports) August 30, 2018
“That’s an A+,” Smith-Pelly said, his face lighting up with glee. “I had never seen anything like that. That was hilarious.”
In fact, DSP was impressed by all three of the team’s Russians. Evgeny Kuznetsov did three photoshoots with fans and Ovechkin ate a special delicacy out of the Cup.
“I’m not into caviar, but I know it’s pretty expensive,” Smith-Pelly said.
DSP only gave lower than A marks to Barry Trotz for his street sign dedication and Philipp Grubauer’s lederhosen.
“That was a C. Shorts were a little short,” Smith-Pelly said. “I’m not sure about the outfit.”
For the players, the Cup celebrations made the team’s group chat lit during the summer.
“[We] definitely stay[ed] in touch with guys more this offseason because it’s so fun, you want to hear about all the good times. You’re texting guys ‘how was your day?’, and ‘get ready for your day’ type thing,” Wilson said.
