The former Capitals general manager reflects on finally raising the Stanley Cup after years of heartbreak in D.C. and Vegas.

WASHINGTON — Days after the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup last June, with the immediate hoopla having subsided and a parade still on the way, George McPhee took a late-night walk with his wife Leah near their suburban home.

With the intensity of a 63-day playoff grind behind him, McPhee was finally at ease.

“We were just feeling really blessed,” McPhee recalled. “You finally get your bearings and realize, ‘Geez, we won the Stanley Cup.’ It was a wonderful feeling.”

For McPhee, that feeling was decades in the making. After 40 years in pro hockey, including a 17-year stint as GM of the Washington Capitals, McPhee returns to Capital One Arena Tuesday for the first time as a Stanley Cup champion.

“It does change you,” McPhee said in a phone conversation. “You do feel different. Some people call it validation, some people call it vindication. But for me, it may not be a great analogy because it has something to do with the underworld, but we just feel like we’re 'made men' now. We’ve reached a certain status. And I’ve heard people say this all the time, but it can’t be taken away. I always thought it was cliché, but it’s true. You’ve done something. You’ve won a Stanley Cup and not many people do that.”

Few can appreciate the quest better than McPhee, who reached the Cup Final three times previously as an executive only to see his teams fall in all three. His tenure in Washington was littered with uber-talented teams who made a habit of premature and disheartening playoff exits.

That his expansion Vegas team that he built from scratch eventually fell in the 2018 Cup Final to [checks notes…] the Capitals(!) seems cruel. But those past defeats, McPhee said, ultimately made the elusive title especially rewarding.

“I believe it makes it even better,” said McPhee, now the Golden Knights President of Hockey Ops. “I know what it’s like to lose, I know the emptiness, the hardship, the criticism. So, I have a better appreciation for it at my age and my experience in the League.”

McPhee concedes those past defeats may have even left him a little scarred as the Golden Knights were on their way to an eventual 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers in the Cup clincher.

“The running joke was that I didn’t relax until we got the eighth goal,” he said. “But it’s true. I’m sitting there and my heart is telling me it’s 6-1 after two periods, we’re going to win the thing. But my head is telling me you can’t go there because I’ve been disappointed so many times before. So, I couldn’t let it go.”

But as the clock ticked down in the final minutes, McPhee turned to the suite behind him. There, to his surprise, stood his wife and two daughters, who had come up from the lower bowl.

“They were just ready to hand out lots of big hugs and when I turned around, all three of them were crying,” he said. “Having your name on the Cup means something, getting a ring means something, but what means more is that I had my family around me.”

The job was done. McPhee reveled in sharing it with his family and with the city of Las Vegas. He helped fulfill team owner Bill Foley’s prophecy that they’d ice a champion within six years of their first game. In the process, McPhee realized his own childhood dream.

“I guess you’re never too old to become what you’ve always wanted to be. I was hoping I could be a Stanley Cup champion one day. I’ve known about the Stanley Cup since I was six years old. I was playing for it when I was a 6 and 7-year-old in our backyard rink and street hockey in the summers. So, at 64 years of age, to still be in the game and to win one, it was a big moment in my life.”

And yet, when it was his time to finally lift the Stanley Cup on the T-Mobile ice last June, McPhee sheepishly accepted it from GM Kelly McCrimmon and maintained a mostly tight-lipped smile as he raised it above his head.

“I felt humility,” he said. “I didn’t want to shake it up and down and kiss it and all that stuff. I just thought, ‘Am I worthy to be lifting this?’ I’ve had so much respect for the game and the Stanley Cup and all the previous winners and everything else, so I just wanted to humbly put it over my head and give it to somebody else.

“I was really lucky; about 30 minutes later, we were able to take some pictures on a different part of the ice with the Cup, and I got a picture just holding it, not over my head, but sort of just cradling it, and that photo for me is the one I enjoy most and obviously will have for a lifetime.”

DMV Natives Share in Cup Win

The Golden Knights’ connections to the Capitals aren’t limited to McPhee. From assistant coach Joel Ward to forward Chandler Stephenson and goalie Logan Thompson to the team’s VP of communications and content Nate Ewell, Vegas is chockfull of Capitals alumni.

In fact, among the 52 names engraved on the Stanley Cup this year, was a trio of Maryland natives.

Assistant GM Andrew Lugerner (Bethesda, Wootten High School), Director of Hockey Administration Katy Hedman Boettinger (Gaithersburg, Quince Orchard High School) and Director of Team Services Rick Braunstein (Laurel, Laurel High School) all broke into the NHL as interns or employees with the Capitals.

Ben Raby is a host on the Capitals Radio Network and a sports anchor on WTOP and SiriusXM.