Capitals players already bailing on possible White House visit

A handful of Capitals players don’t need to wait for an invitation to President Trump’s White House to give their RSVP. They have no interest in attending.

While Trump has played coy on whether he’ll keep with tradition and extend an invitation to the Stanley Cup champions, Capitals forward Brett Connolly said Wednesday that he and some of his teammates will stay away, each for his own reason.

“Personally, I don’t think I’m going to go,” Connolly said at BioSteel Camp in Toronto, according to SportsNet. “There’s a few guys. It has nothing to do with politics.

“For me, I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think there’ll be a few guys not going, too. Like I said, it has nothing to do with politics. It’s about what’s right and wrong. And we’ll leave it at that.”

Winger Devante Smith-Pelly started the trend in June after the Caps defeated the Golden Knights in five games, ending Washington, D.C.’s 26-year championship drought among the four major pro sports. Smith-Pelly echoed Connolly that politics would not play into his decision to avoid the White House. He instead pointed to Trump’s “racist,” “sexist” and “gross” rhetoric as his reason for not attending, and he backed up the sentiment Wednesday.

“I said what I said: I’m not going,” said Smith-Pelly, who is black and Canadian like Connolly. “I’m kinda tired of talking about it, to be honest. … I made my decision.”

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Smith-Pelly and Connolly might not have to diverge from their teammates in the end, as Trump has not commented on the possibility of the Caps visiting since saying in June, “I think we’ll have the Caps, we’ll see.” The president rescinded the 2017 NBA champion Warriors’ invitation to the White House last year and said neither the Cavaliers nor the Warriors would be welcome during the Finals this year. The Warriors swept the Cavs for their third championship in four years.

Still, the Penguins celebrated at the White House in 2017 after winning the Stanley Cup and several Capitals players have said they would do the same, including captain Alex Ovechkin. Smith-Pelly said the Capitals organization was leaving that decision up to each individual player.

“I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand,” Smith-Pelly said of whether the players feel pressure from the top. “They’re not like, ‘Maybe you should do it.’ Not that they don’t care, but they’re like, ‘Hey, do whatever you want.’

“If some guys are like, ‘We wanna go because we wanna see the White House, cool.’ I’m not going to look at anyone differently because they want to see the White House. Me, personally, I don’t want to go.”