Capitals celebrate Youth Hockey Night with local athletes

The Washington Capitals went back to where it all began, celebrating Youth Hockey Night at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

Players arrived to the arena wearing special jerseys, and walked in with local youth hockey players. Capitals players wore each youth player’s team jersey.

The youth players represent various local hockey organizations, including the American Special Hockey Association, Capitals Inline Hockey League (a co-ed league established to provide a unified travel league for existing inline hockey players looking to expand their opportunities to play), high schools and youth hockey clubs.

Various youth hockey players will also be invited to watch warmups from the Capitals bench and take the ice with the Capitals starting lineup.

The team’s Youth Hockey Weekend started on Friday, with youth hockey clinics at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.

On Saturday morning, the Capitals hosted an open practice and encouraged attendees to wear their youth hockey jerseys.

In attendance on Saturday was Sunny Thornton, a four-year-old pediatric cancer patient who joined Alex Ovechkin on the “Rock the Red” carpet before the Capitals game against the Boston Bruins in October.

Sunny met up with Ovechkin again on Saturday, bringing him a custom jersey with a picture of the two together from that October event.