Ryan Leonard was bestowed quite an honor by his Washington Capitals teammates. Inside the locker room after the team’s 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, Caps defenseman Rasmus Sandin revealed that the team had changed their goal song to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” in celebration of Leonard’s musical talents.
“We switched it after a good little rookie party that we had,” Sandin said. “Shout out to Ryan Leonard. He had a great performance for us. So, it’s after that we switched it up.
“It was fantastic,” he added. “[Y]ou guys should ask him next time if he can perform for you guys.”
Thursday, RMNB’s Katie Adler took Sandin’s advice. While Leonard didn’t do any singing, he did share some backstory.
Here’s how the conversation went.
Q. We were told last night that we should ask you about a performance of “Uptown Funk.” How’d that come about?
Ryan Leonard: Me and Sourdy (Justin Sourdif) had to sing a karaoke song, and that was what I chose, and then it kind of stuck.
Q. Why’d you choose that one?
Ryan Leonard: I almost sang it in the talent show when I was like, whenever the song came out, whenever that was. Elementary school. And then, I don’t know, it just kind of came to my head. There was something I had all the words to and had a good jingle to it.
[Editor’s note: “Uptown Funk” was released in 2014.]]
Q. Were you both singing together?
Ryan Leonard: No, you picked your own song.
Q. What did he pick?
Ryan Leonard: I don’t know, honestly. I kind of forget. Chuck, what did Sourdy sing for karaoke?
Charlie Lindgren: He sang “The Gambler.”
Ryan Leonard: Yeah the gambler, the gambler.
Q. Are you a big karaoke guy?
Ryan Leonard: I mean my sister Brianna loves to sing so we’d always get microphones like those annoying microphones, like we’d get them as Secret Santa gifts and then sometimes at Christmas events they would turn into stuff like that. That’s probably like the only other time I’ve done a karaoke.
Q. This was at the Rookie dinner?
Ryan Leonard: Yeah.
Q. Where was it at?
Ryan Leonard: Restaurant.
What remains a mystery is what makes this performance so great that it became the team’s victory song for the rest of the season. A mystery that may remain forever until the end of time — unless the ultimate super sleuth can crack the case.
“I don’t (know anything),” Spencer Carbery said. “I obviously hear it every time. I’m like, ‘That’s interesting,’ because it’s not — usually [the victory song] is a newer song. That’s been around for a while…He did, like karaoke? Okay, I’m going to do some digging.”
