Biden welcomes Tampa Bay Lightning to White House after repeat Stanley Cup wins
A day after snapping the Florida Panthers’ 13-game winning streak, the Tampa Bay Lightning visited the White House to celebrate their victory in last year’s Stanley Cup finals.
“It’s a pretty good time to be a sports fan in Tampa. I don’t know what the hell you have in the water down there,” President Joe Biden told the Lightning after they captured the oldest trophy in North American professional sports in back-to-back seasons.
Despite winning the cup twice before, Monday’s event marked the team’s first visit to the White House to celebrate one of their championship victories. The Lightning won the cup in 2020 as teams competed under strict COVID protocols without fans present in the arena. The team repeated the feat in 2021, besting the Montreal Canadiens in five games last summer.
“I know that those two championships were very different. In 2020, your fans watched the win from thousands of miles away as you competed in the bubble in Edmonton due to the pandemic. But this past season, you got to deliver something truly special, hoisting the cup on your home ice in front of the Tampa faithful. And don’t underestimate what that feeling meant to so many fans, especially kids,” Biden said as he stood alongside the Lightning’s players and the Stanley Cup.
Biden won a bet against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the Lightning bested the Montreal Canadiens in five games. Trudeau paid off the bet by sending smoked meat sandwiches, a Montreal favorite, to the White House.
Attendees at Monday’s celebration included Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat facing a potentially tough reelection contest, who was waving a “Go Bolts!” banner as Biden and the team took the stage on the White House lawn.
The White House visit came nine months after the Lightning’s 2021 finals victory and during the final week of the NHL regular season.
“It’s been a historic run,” said Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who grew up in Minnesota, noting that the Lightning are only the second NHL team to win back-to-back championships this century. “The quest for a third cup is not out of reach,” he added.
The Lightning are poised to make another run this year after clinching a playoff berth with a record of 49-22-8, but it’s their South Florida rivals, the Panthers, who have clinched the No. 1 seed in the playoffs with the league’s best record of 57-16-6.
The Lightning are set to wrap their regular season Friday against the New York Islanders, while the Panthers will end the season the same night with a game against the Canadiens, the Lightning’s 2021 finals opponent.
The Lightning beat the Panthers Sunday 8-4.
Lightning owner Jeff Vinik invited Biden to visit Tampa for a championship boat parade if the Bolts are able to win the cup again this year. The team presented Biden with a No. 46 jersey and a silver hockey stick as the U.S. Marine Corps band struck up a rendition of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”
Last year’s playoffs marked the Lightning’s third Stanley Cup win since the franchise joined the NHL in 1992. The team won its first cup in 2004.
The Panthers, who joined the league in 1993, are still searching for their first cup after reaching the finals just once, in 1996.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Biden welcomes Tampa Bay Lightning to White House after repeat Stanley Cup wins."
