This post was written by RMNB’s Ian Oland.

Sunday, December 2 against the Anaheim Ducks, I was invited to Capital One Arena as a guest of the Capital One Cafe Chinatown, a new bank and coffee shop located across the street on 7th and F. Coffee and a live Capitals game? How could I say no?

The day before the event, a Capital One Cafe representative sprung a surprise on me. “Ian, you’re going to ride on the Olympia ice resurfacer during the first intermission.”

“Oh no,” I said. “What happens if people notice me and boo me when I come out?”

No one actually booed me, but it ended up being an amazing experience I’ll never forget.

Let’s just not talk about how I was bad luck and the Caps gave up a four-goal lead and lost.

My day started by getting a tour of the Capital One Cafe, which first opened in the fall. For general Capitals fans, the space provides a large, relaxing area to congregate, use free wi-fi, recharge your phones, and take care of business before the game. For Capital One cardholders, you also have the benefit of getting 50 percent off Peet’s Coffee. I had a cold brew and it was amazing.

I spoke to several employees at the Capital One Cafe. They explained to me the concept of the space was to help empower people to feel confident about their relationship with their money. To do that, they’ve redesigned the banking experience so that it fits more naturally into people’s lives. This comes to life in two ways: through their innovative products and digital tools, as well as with face-to-face human connections.

As someone who grew up too intimidated to ask people questions about money, there are warm, knowledgeable employees there to help with any questions you may have: from opening an account, figuring out and maximizing your online account, and understanding bigger things like interest rates.

Once I finished receiving the tour, I headed over to Clyde’s to be the guest speaker at the Washington Capitals Fan Club meeting.

I spent the first 15 minutes or so telling a few personal stories behind the Capitals’ Stanley Cup and our site’s database issues.

During the Capitals’ second-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, our site was getting crushed by web traffic — averaging well over 100k pageviews a day. Usually, that’s a super awesome thing — except during huge moments or goals, our site would go down due to all the excited Caps fans refreshing our website for updates. The problem got so bad that after the Capitals became Eastern Conference champions, we couldn’t post to our site afterward.

20 years prior, the Capitals became Eastern Conference champions for a first time, beating the Buffalo Sabres. That night, the team flew back home to BWI and celebrated at Piney Orchard Ice Arena with fans. I remember, as a 13-year-old, asking my dad if he would take me and my brother to celebrate with the team. With school the next day, it already being close to midnight, and Odenton being an hour-plus away from Frederick, my dad said no. I understood, but it was always a moment I wished I could have been a part of and regretted. I told myself, if I ever get the opportunity again, I should take it.

So that night, with our website down and me literally unable to cover the team, I got a tip from some readers on when the plane would arrive and drove down to Dulles Airport to wait for the team to come back home. I figured there’d be hundreds of people there and I could just take in the whole experience from afar.

Instead, it was me and maybe 10 other people. A little after 3 am, the Capitals returned home from Tampa Bay. Alex Ovechkin could be seen walking down the steps with the Prince of Wales trophy. That was wild. As he walked to his car, he tried and failed to put the trophy in his trunk because it didn’t fit. So he laid the trophy across his friends’ laps in the backseat. As Ovi began to get in the passenger side seat, I said: “Hey, Ovi – it’s Ian from RMNB.”

He immediately turned around excited with a big smile. He said, “PICT-AH, PICT-AH” to the Caps fans congregated around the car and about 10 people took photos of us with their phones.

It was a moment I’ll never, ever forget. And it turned that night 20 years earlier into a positive. For someone who always plays the percentages, it gave me the courage to leave my house, drive a really, really long way, and just see what happens.

Over the next week before the Stanley Cup Final began, Peter, myself, and a developer worked furiously and with little sleep to move our site to a new server. We managed to do it after Game One. Our site has had no troubles since then.

I went on to take a lot of great questions from the Caps Fan Club members. At the end of the presentation, the Capitals Fan Club told me I could donate money to my favorite charity as a thank you for speaking. I announced that I was donating half of my speakership fee to Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic in salute of Abby Flint, who many of you know as TJ Oshie’s Wish Kid. I donated the other half to the Alex Luey Foundation.

My next stop was the Capitals game. Because I have an account with Capital One, I got to take advantage of several cardholder perks.

There’s a VIP Entrance located on 6th Street where Capital One cardholders can get into the arena 15 minutes early.

There’s also a 10 percent discount on food from permanent concession stands at Capital One Arena and a 20 percent discount on all retail transactions at arena Team Store and retail stands. The only caveat is that you must show Capital One Credit/Debit Card.

After Hockey Hall of Famer Rod Langway, no joke, held the door for me, I walked inside and found my seats in the lower bowl. The Capitals pregame projection on the ice was awesome. The anthem from Caleb Green was fantastic. I sang loud and proud. The Capitals even scored three times in the first period. I struggled to enjoy it all though because I was so nervous about going out on the ice resurfacer.

As a Monumental employee ushered me downstairs, they made me sign a waiver. Was I going to be the first person to fall off the ice resurfacer die during a game? Stop thinking about this possibility, Ian.

After a several minute wait so the mites on ice could play a game, it was time. I ambled up some stairs and took my seat beside the driver. I gave a thumbs up to a photographer. My nerves were really getting serious now. This is really happening.

The ice resurfacer turned on. It jerked forward. The humming reminded me of being on a riding lawn mower.

As we went out on the ice, I felt a quiet calm. It seemed like the ice sheet extended forever and the crowd was massively far away. The arena sound and the crowd was muffled. I looked around and waved at some fans I didn’t know. I took endless amounts of video and photos. The best part was looking up at the Capitals Stanley Cup champions banner hanging from the roof of the arena.

At one point, The Horn Guy tooted at me from the upper deck. I heard him and waved. It seemed like such a nice gesture. I waved to Wes Johnson, the Caps PA Announcer that I named my child after. I felt so special. And a tad bit dumb admittedly.

Several times, the driver brushed up along boards creating a whiplash effect in the chair. I was told no fan had ever dropped their phone while riding the machine, but I got really close.

After what seemed like forever (five minutes), we made our way off the ice and dumped the snow from the rink into a dumping area.

As I was taking my seatbelt off, the driver gave me a piece of the netting from the Stanley Cup Final. I was blown away.

I took several photos downstairs in front of Stanley Cup Final signs. Eventually, I had to make my way back up to my seats for the rest of the game.

In the second period, the Capitals took a 5-1 lead. I was really happy. Then suddenly I was not. Over the remaining 26 minutes, the Capitals gave up five unanswered goals and lost 6-5.

Before I left Capital One Arena, I bought some ridiculous Ovi Stanley Cup champion socks that I had never seen before online. A perfect Christmas gift I thought! I flashed my Capital One card and got 20 percent off at the team store.

It was a really good day.