华盛顿-乔·拜登开玩笑说，史蒂文·斯塔姆科斯在国家曲棍球联盟打了14个赛季后变老了，称赞了坦帕湾闪电队的疫苗努力，并在过去两个赛季的每一个赛季都赢得了斯坦利杯。
在他的政府对俄罗斯在乌克兰的战争做出回应的一次罕见的体育休息中，总统周一提到了第一夫人吉尔·拜登(Jill Biden)去年参加了闪电队主场馆的一次疫苗接种活动，并祝贺闪电队赢得了两次疫情冠军:一次是在一个被隔离的泡沫中的一座空建筑里，另一次是在坦帕家中拥挤的房子里。
“我并不是说第一夫人在季后赛期间出现在你的竞技场是你获胜的原因，”拜登笑着说。“但只是说她在选举季节也在那里。当人们赢的时候她似乎会出现。只是一些需要思考的东西。”
拜登在谈到照明背靠背的冠军争夺战时很少提到除了斯塔姆科斯之外的球员，这在很大程度上取决于俄罗斯守门员安德烈·瓦西里耶夫斯基、前锋尼基塔·库切罗夫和防守队员米哈伊尔·谢尔加切夫。瓦西列夫斯基是去年的季后赛MVP，库切罗夫是每个季后赛的得分王。
三名球员都参加了活动，Sergachev在社交媒体上分享了他们在白宫周围的照片。没有明显的缺席，闪电队2020年冠军队中少数已经离开或退役的球员甚至出现了。
就为了这一次，在本赛季已经访问华盛顿首都两次之后，球队在八个月内第三次访问了美国首都。闪电队在佛罗里达黑豹队(Florida Panthers)比赛后于周日晚上飞行，并计划在周二面对哥伦布蓝夹克队(Columbus Blue Jackets)之前回家，这是他们在下周季后赛开始前的常规赛最后一场比赛。
“几乎每个人都在船上，每个能做到的人——前球员和其他人——他们都试图在这里做到这一点，”替补队长瑞安·麦克多纳说。“这是我们的一个伟大传统:你成为冠军队的一员，你可以去白宫见总统。”
尽管闪电队在2004年、2020年和2021年三次赢得斯坦利杯，但这是该组织首次在白宫访问在任总统。2004-05赛季NHL停摆使当年的队伍无法参赛，疫情将这个机会推迟到第二届背靠背锦标赛后的九个月。
“这是一个漫长的过程，”斯塔姆科斯说。“我们不确定是否会得到这个机会，但等待肯定是值得的。”
加拿大人斯塔姆科斯邀请明尼苏达州人麦克多纳代表球队在仪式上发言。球员和教练乔恩·库珀(Jon Cooper)都戴着两个奖杯戒指，拜登邀请他们到椭圆形办公室聊天，这给他们留下了深刻的印象。
拥有美国和加拿大双重国籍的库珀说:“在他作为自由世界领导人的位置上，他有一种惊人的能力，可以抛开那种角色，做一个普通人，就像他是我们的队友一样。”。“我有点想变得贪婪，和这个家伙一起坐在高脚凳上喝啤酒，听他讲述自己的人生故事。你可以看到他为什么会当选总统。”
拜登赢得了更多的分数，他称赞坦帕地区的美国职业棒球大联盟光芒队在2020年进入世界系列赛，以及美国国家橄榄球联盟的海盗队在几个月后赢得超级碗。他说闪电“可能会在明年出现——谁知道呢?”
闪电队再次跻身NHL的顶级球队，并有望成为自20世纪80年代初纽约岛民王朝以来连续三年赢得奖杯的第一支球队。
“我们小组的好事情是饥饿仍然存在，”麦克多纳说。“我们不需要任何额外的动力，但毫无疑问，在常规赛的最后一周和季后赛开始之前，这确实增加了人们的兴奋感。”
Biden avoids politics in honoring hockey champion Lightning
WASHINGTON -- Joe Biden joked that Steven Stamkos was getting old after playing in the National Hockey League for 14 seasons, praised the Tampa Bay Lightning's vaccine efforts and otherwise avoided politics while honoring the team for winning the Stanley Cup in each of the past two seasons.
In a rare sports break amid his administration’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the president on Monday referenced first lady Jill Biden’s attendance at a vaccination event at the Lightning’s home arena last year and congratulated the Lightning for winning two pandemic championships: one in an empty building in a quarantined bubble and another in a packed house at home in Tampa.
“I’m not saying that the first lady being there at your arena during the playoffs is why you won,” Biden said with a smile. “But just saying that she was there during the election season, as well. She seems to show up when people win. Just something to think about.”
Biden made little mention of players other than Stamkos while talking about the Lighting's back-to-back title runs, which relied heavily on Russian goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, forward Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. Vasilevskiy was the playoff MVP last year, and Kucherov was the top scorer in each postseason.
All three players attended the event, and Sergachev shared photos of them around the White House on social media. There were no noticeable absences, and a handful of players from the Lightning's 2020 championship team who had departed or retired even made appearances.
Just for this occasion, the team made a third trip to the nation's capital in eight months after already visiting the Washington Capitals twice this season. The Lightning flew Sunday night after playing at the Florida Panthers and were set to return home before facing the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday in one of their final games of the regular season before the playoffs begin next week.
“Pretty much everybody was on board, and everybody that could make it — former players and stuff — they all tried to make it here,” alternate captain Ryan McDonagh said. “It’s just a great tradition that we have: You become part of a championship team, you get to go to the White House and meet the president.”
Despite the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup three times — in 2004, 2020 and 2021 — it was the organization's first time visiting a sitting president at the White House. The 2004-05 NHL lockout prevented that year's team from going, and the pandemic delayed this opportunity until nine months after the second of these back-to-back championships.
“It was a long time in the making,” Stamkos said. “We weren’t sure if we were going to get this opportunity, but it was certainly worth the wait.”
Stamkos, who is Canadian, deferred to McDonagh, a Minnesota native, to speak on behalf of the team at the ceremony. Players and coach Jon Cooper, who were wearing both Cup rings, were most impressed by Biden inviting them into the Oval Office to chat afterward.
“In the position he’s in (being) the leader of the free world and all that stuff, he has an amazing ability to wipe that persona aside and just be a human being like he was one of our teammates,” said Cooper, who is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada. “I kind of wanted to get greedy and sit down with a beer on a barstool with this guy and listen to the story of his life. You can see why he was elected president.”
Biden won some more points when he praised the Tampa area for Major League Baseball's Rays reaching the World Series in 2020 and the NFL’s Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl months later. He said the Lightning “may be here next year — who knows?”
The Lightning are again among the NHL's top teams and are looking to become the first to win the Cup three years in a row since the New York Islanders dynasty in the early 1980s.
“The good thing with our group is the hunger’s still there,” McDonagh said. “We don’t need any kind of extra motivation, but certainly this does heighten the excitement, for sure, going into the last week of the regular season and before the start of the playoffs.”
