This guest post is written by Sean Morrow.
A few days after the Caps were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes, I heard John Walton’s monologue from his Game Seven postgame show.
He reminded us that, no matter the disappointing result of the 2018-19 season, the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions banner still hung in the rafters of Capital One Arena. He reminded us of what it symbolizes: “the moments that we shared as a city, as a region, as a family” in “a year we will never forget.”
I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate his monologue into my next Caps video.
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The monologue made me think about how I had woken up the morning after Game Seven with an unfamiliar feeling. Missing was the despair and hopelessness that had characterized so many Caps-elimination hangovers that I’d grown accustomed to over the previous years. This, just maybe, had something to do with it too: I spent the whole day watching 2018 Caps Stanley Cup highlights.
Unlike my previous videos, I wanted this one to center primarily around the fans. Inspired by John Walton’s message, I wanted this video to celebrate the unforgettable moments that Caps fans shared in the spring of 2018 after years of heartbreak experienced by the same community. I wanted it, above all, to stress the timelessness of the Caps Stanley Cup which, as John Walton pointed out, is preserved indefinitely by the banner now hanging in our building.
No matter what future seasons bring, the banner will still be there, as permanent as the memories that we as a fanbase made last year (and they were worth the wait!). He expressed this far more eloquently than I ever could, so it feels fitting to conclude my introduction to the video with his words: “Remember what happened here, and smile a little bit when you do.”
Listen to John Walton’s original post-Game Seven monologue.
Headline photo: NBCSN
