Thousands of Washington Capitals fans gathered on the National Mall to celebrate the ice hockey team's Stanley Cup championship, the team's first in its 44-year existence.
The team paraded down Constitution Avenue in the ceremonial heart of Washington before a rally Tuesday between the Washington Monument and the Capitol.
Fans wearing Capitals jerseys staked out the best vantage points for hours along the street to see their favorite players, including the Russian-born captain Alexander Ovechkin, and catch a glimpse of the meter-tall Stanley Cup awarded to the winning team each year in the National Hockey League playoffs.
In Photos: The Capitals Stanley Cup Victory Parade
The city has not celebrated a major professional sports championship since 1992 when the city's National Footnall League franchise, the Redskins, last won the Super Bowl.
The Capitals' championship caught the city by surprise, with the team, even talented ones that compiled lofty regular season results in recent years, repeatedly having failed to advance through early rounds of the annual playoffs.
But the 2018 version last week defeated the first-year Vegas Golden Knights four games to one in the best-of-seven final series, winning the championship in Las Vegas.
