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Behind the scenes of the Washington Nationals’ World Series celebration and shirtless Zamboni ride at the Nov. 3 Capitals game

By Ian Oland

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April 30, 2020 9:50 pm

The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros 6-2 in Game Seven of the World Series to become world champions for the first time. In the locker room, they tried to drink out of the Commissioners’ Trophy like it was the Stanley Cup – at some point bending three of its flags. On November 2, the team paraded down Constitution Avenue. The next evening the players filed into a party bus and drove into the underbelly of Capital One Arena to celebrate at a Capitals game.

“That was the best night for me,” Adam Eaton said in an interview on the RMNB Podcast. “I loved the parade but this was better than the parade. The reason it was better than the parade was because — no offense to the families — it was the last time that we could have everybody together. Just the boys. It was the roster. There was no wives, no kids, no nothing. It was just the boys. Let’s go.”

Video

Most of the quotes are from RMNB’s podcast interview with Adam Eaton.

The Nationals were re-paying the favor after the Caps brought the Stanley Cup to Nats Park on June 9, 2018, to hold their first public championship celebration. Alex Ovechkin threw out two ceremonial first pitches (he was hammered), the players downed beers and sang We Are The Champions on live TV, and bear-hugged fans as they left.

From getting shirtless on the Zamboni to doing a conga line with the Capitals in the locker room, the Nats-at-Caps’ game was easily the most fun hockey game of the 2019-20 season so far.

RMNB goes behind-the-scenes of that epic game.

The starting lineups (RMNB story)

After meeting with Capitals coaches, Ryan Zimmerman, nicknamed “Mr. National” for being the first draft pick in Nats history, was given the honor to read the starting lineups before the game.

“How’s everyone doing? First of all, I want to thank everyone for the support that you guys gave us during this run that we had,” Zimmerman said. “Seeing you guys following us, I know you guys were pissed that you were on the west coast (for the World Series), but seeing the pictures, seeing the Halloween party with you guys spraying champagne, man, that was awesome for us. We had a great time watching you. The support you gave us, I think really put us over the top.”

After Zim announced the starting five, Adam Eaton walked in as a surprise, wearing a Nationals hard hat. He cradled the Commissioners’ Trophy in his left arm and held a Bud Light in his right hand.

“I brought my friend with me,” Eaton said of the World Series Trophy. “It doesn’t have a name like yours.”

Eaton gave the Capitals the batting helmet so the team could continue using one as a trophy for their postgame player of the game award.

“We gave them the (original) helmet, two weeks before the [Nats-at-Caps] game,” Eaton said. “They donated the helmet on the west coast. They raffled it off [for a hospital or something] or gave it to charity. So when we came back we brought them another helmet, signed it all. They didn’t really expect another helmet.”

Then Eaton pulled his Caps jersey over his head and gave “them what they want, the Oshie chug. I tried [to get the boys going].”

“The hockey jersey did not go well,” Eaton admitted, before offering advice to those who wanted to try the trick at home. “With the hockey jersey, it’s very thick. But it all depends on what shirt you’re wearing. Just get some flow going, and just let it be I guess. My only tidbits. Get a breathable shirt. A basketball jersey is probably the best one.”

The team photo (RMNB story)

Minutes before puck drop, the Washington Nationals were honored at ice level and saluted by the crowd at Capital One Arena. Nationals’ reliever Sean Doolittle walked the Commissioner’s Trophy out onto the ice and held it over his head.

Players from both teams then congregated and posed together to take a large 50-person photo.

“That was the first time I’d been at ice level,” Eaton said. “Of course, you know how big the guys are, but when they put skates on and Ovi is like [right there] I mean that man, he is like RMNB. He is a mountain of a man. He is huge. And when he has his skates on and his pads on and he just comes over, and I was busting up to go on a knee right next to him. And he held onto me, cause he was fired up that we were there.

“I’m like “don’t break me man’, he’s strong-arming me,” Eaton continued. “But just to be out there. You see Wilson, how big he is, on the ice too. Why you would ever want to mess with any of these guys is beyond me. It just shows you how crazy some of these guys are. You’re skating at 25 MPH and all of a sudden, a fight breaks out. It’s amazing how these guys can collide with other guys. Just being on the ice the lights and those guys embracing us taking a picture with it firing us up. Everybody left the ice chattering about it, it was a really cool experience. We were all wide-eyed.”

Pouring beers into fans’ mouths (RMNB story)

After the pregame celebration, the Nationals filed up to a private suite and watched the game. Andrew Mangiapane got the Calgary Flames on the board first, 5:40 into the game. Jakub Vrana then tallied twice 4:07 apart to give the Caps a 2-1 lead. Nationals players started dancing and pounding beers.

“As the game progressed, we started drinking and having a good time,” Eaton said. “Then all of a sudden, guys started like pouring beers over the side. Fans were coming up and saying ‘POUR SOME BEER IN MY MOUTH.’ So we start pouring beer into these peoples’ mouths, and the lady that was our chaperone, that was kind of in charge of us, was like, ‘No, you can’t do that!’ And we’re like, ‘No, we can. We’re going to.'”

And boy did they.

Jakub Vrana’s hat trick and Adam Eaton’s on-ice celebration (RMNB story)

During the second period, a group of Washington Nationals players including Adam Eaton, Ryan Zimmerman, Max Scherzer, Yan Gomes, Daniel Hudson, Trea Turner, and Sean Doolittle made their way down to the lower level.

“Vrana has two goals, and we’re going underneath to get on the Zamboni,” Eaton said.

Jakub Vrana completed his first career hat trick with 4:55 remaining in the second period.

Adam Eaton heard the horn and got in on the celebration at ice level even though, again, he was not scheduled to be there. He brought the Commissioner’s Trophy back onto the ice and began to celebrate. He also hampered the clean-up crew’s job in the best way.

“It’s pretty mazey down there,” Eaton continued. “You think you know where you are but you really don’t know. So I’m going and all of a sudden I hear the horn and I just happen to have the World Series trophy. I’m trying to carry it as much as I can. And I’m like no way, let’s see if he scored. And I run. I’m running with the World Series Trophy and I get to wherever it was. And what was funny was I get to the end and I don’t know who was the goaltender and I’m (faux machine-gun) shooting him with the World Series trophy. I threw my hat on there, I don’t know where that went. And people are throwing their hats to me, so I’m throwing those hats on there. They’re sweeping hats to me, I’m throwing those on there. I’m trying to hit [the goalie] with it. I was blacked out at that point.

“Like I said, I heard the horn and I’m thinking this could be a hat trick,” Eaton said. “I’m gonna go check this thing out. I don’t even know what hat I had on, but it’s gone because I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life. I went out there and funny, security took me away too. Everyone’s fired up, I turn around and I’m loving this moment right here, and security is like, “All right, c’mon. They’re gonna close up. Let’s go. Let’s go.’”

The shirtless Zamboni ride (RMNB story)

The most iconic moment of the night was the Nationals’ shirtless Zamboni ride around the ice during the second intermission. It was not planned. It was not scheduled. The Nats weren’t even supposed to be there.

“I want to credit myself for getting the idea to go on the Zamboni,” Eaton said. “The chaperone — the same lady that told us we couldn’t pour beer in everyone’s mouth — I went up to her and I was like, ‘We gotta get on the Zamboni. Period. I don’t care what it takes we’re getting on the Zamboni’ and she’s like, ‘No, there’s already people that are in line. They get in line months in advance for these things.’ And I’m like, “I don’t care. Get us on the Zamboni. This is our night. This has happened once since 1930. It’s been a long time! We’re going!’

“So we went down there and there’s 6 seats on the one Zamboni and then there’s a single,” Eaton continued. “And she goes down there goes to the people that are driving the Zamboni and says, ‘they want on the Zamboni.’ And the guy says, ‘these people are already going, they have their [pass]. You can ask them to see what they say, but I have no promise you’re gonna get on.’ I’m like, ‘We’re getting on, let’s go.’

Eaton and the other Nationals’ players approached a group of six guys who were scheduled to ride the Olympia ice resurfacer. They were with a corporate sponsor.

“I said, ‘Hey, do you mind if we take the Zamboni?” And they say, “Absolutely. Take it!'” Eaton recalled. “And we took a picture. They each got an individual picture and then we took a group picture. I’m a hockey fan, if the Stanley Cup came by and I’m Ovi, you know I’m not Ovi, but some players came up? Yeah! Heck yeah! You can go on a Zamboni ride, I can do that (trade) any day of the week!”

While Eaton, Scherzer, Gomes, Hudson, Turner, and Doolittle now had a ride onto the ice, Ryan Zimmerman did not.

“Zim had to go ask this girl. I don’t know how old she was. 10? 8? Maybe 12?” Eaton said. “And he went up to her and was like, ‘Excuse me, do you mind if I take your Zamboni ride?’ And she said, ‘But it’s my birthday!’ And I think Zim said something like, ‘Well we won this trophy over here and we should take it out.’ And I think her parents were down there, and they did the same exact trade. But I think they were more reluctant than the guys.”

“That is a fact,” Scherzer confirmed. “Zim did kick off a 15-year-old girl during her birthday party.”

As the Nationals were about to go on the ice, they could be heard screaming and yelling in the background of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s intermission interview with NBC Sports Washington.

“They look pretty sober, you know?” Kuznetsov said to rinkside reporter Al Koken. “When we was in their situation, I pretty much don’t remember anything.”

Kuzy would end up being proud of what came next.

“We hop on the Zamboni, and we’re fired up,” Eaton said. “This is gonna be awesome! We can’t wait. Let’s give them a show. And Yan Gomes is like, ‘You know what we should do. We should take our shirts off like Dozier. And we should fire them up. Do what we need to do and hold the trophy.’ The Zamboni driver heard us and he was like, ‘No. Nope. You can’t do that. If you do anything like that, I gotta come right back in. We cannot have that out there.’ Yan is like, ‘Well, how many times around do you go?’ And the driver said, ‘I go three’ So I was like ‘as you make that second turn you gotta go all the way down to come back. You can’t just cut across, right?’ And he’s like, ‘Yep! All right cool, that’s what we’re doing boys!'”

“So as we make that second turn, we took our shirts off. I don’t know why probably just trying to be like Dozier.'”

A fully clothed Zimmerman, who was on the other Olympia ice resurfacer, noticed what his teammates were up to and looked on in horror.

“Zim stayed clothed. He was Dad,” Eaton said. “He wasn’t allowed, he’d get in trouble. He didn’t want the dad bod to be out there. I remember us looking at him and he was like, ‘What in the world are you guys doing?’ And we were like, ‘Hey, apparently, you can do whatever you want when you win the World Series.”

“I can’t believe we did that,” Sean Doolittle said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Zimmerman said. “No, everyone said that was my dad picture.”

“So disappointed in those guys,” Daniel Hudson joked.

Suite hopping and an impromptu meeting with the officials

One of the previous unreported parts of the night was what happened after the Zamboni ride ended.

“We came back underneath, we got off the Zamboni, and I’m carrying the trophy and I see the room where the refs are,” Eaton said. “So we’re going in there for sure. We get a picture with all the referees… We were all wasted in this picture. But I actually got the picture from the referee.

“Then we went into the cheerleading and ice scraping rooms,” Eaton said. “We got pictures with them. Everyone we ran into we took a picture with.”

Photo via an All Caps Crew member

Nationals players then began making rounds at the suite level. NASCAR driver Brandon Brown, an XFINITY Series driver from Northern Virginia, was at the game.

“We went in the suite with him, and let his family hold the trophy,” Eaton said.

“We ran into a lot of people that are kind of influential in DC and I can’t remember any of them,” Eaton said laughing. “It was crazy. We went around just knocking on all the suite doors and handing them the trophy (saying), ‘Take a picture with us. Come on let’s go!’ I feel like that’s kind of like the Stanley Cup. The fans give so much to us, we want to give it back. So even if it’s just random people, you’re supporting the Capitals which means you’re supporting us. Let’s have a moment.”

The end of the game

The Nationals continued to get wilder as the game ended. Most of the team was shirtless and still drinking.

“Honestly, at that point, I had no idea what was going on,” Ryan Zimmerman said.

The Capitals beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 and the two teams did the baby shark chomp back and forth to each other.

The players filed down to the locker room.

Nats and Caps drink and celebrate in locker room (RMNB post 1, 2)

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Cheers to you my friend 🍻 #700

A post shared by Adam Eaton (@adam_eaton2) on

The Capitals had the day off the next day, and of course, the Nats had no plans. So the two teams had a house party in the locker room.

“We went down underneath and there was no media in the room, nothing. Just us and the boys, which was awesome,” Eaton said. “We did our after-game ritual with them. Ovechkin and some of the guys got involved which was pretty cool. It was a lot of fun.”

The two teams sang We Are The Champions, forming a big circle around the locker room.

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Champions.

A post shared by Washington Capitals (@capitals) on

The players did a conga line.

And finally, TJ Oshie did his beer chug.

“I went back to the coaches’ room,” Eaton said. “I know the coaches fairly well, but that was after an hour or so of drinking with the guys. I went in there and was shooting the you-know-what. Zim was in there, and Davey was in there, and Rizzo. I’m definitely the fly on the wall for sure. You got the cool, really awesome coaching staff of the Caps, and then you got Rizzo the GM, Davey the manager, basically the mayor of DC in there. So I’m just the guy in the corner being quiet. It was neat to be able to talk with those guys. Great minds in the DC area, and really in sports.

“All of a sudden, we hear a knock on the door and Dozier is at the door,” Eaton continued. “And he says, ‘Hey they’re letting us out on the ice! Let’s go on the ice! They’re giving us all sticks! Let’s go on the ice!’ And I’m not gonna say no to that.”

Nationals players play hockey after midnight (RMNB post)

“I think it’s 1 or 2 in the morning, we’re out there stick handling with all the guys,” Eaton said. “[Dozier] was shirtless. He always is.”

The players took slap shots and fell over spectacularly. Trea Turner slid on the ice in his shoes. One daring player decided to play goalie as his teammates wildly shot the puck at him. Several Nats tried to fight each other multiple times, pulling their jerseys over their heads. The players even attempted to line up in a face-off formation and seemed confused as to what to do next.

Jakub Vrana wandered out from the Capitals locker room and shot video from the bench.

The most impressive player was Eaton, who has hockey experience.

Meanwhile, Gerardo Parra looked like he was having the time of his life.

“We’re sliding around out there just having a good old time,” Eaton said.

The players finally go home

“We left the arena, I think it was past 2,” Eaton said. “Just really cool to shut the place down with the guys and have a couple drinks. I got a ride home with Blaine (Forsythe).

“To be able to go to the Caps game, let loose with the guys, just with the guys, and then go underneath and both teams have a world championship in their sport, to enjoy one another was surreal,” Eaton said. “I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. It was such a good time… It was neat that they won one, we chased one and succeeded as they did. And then that night was really cool that both of us could say that we’d won one.”

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