Tampa Bay Lightning to make White House visit on Monday
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be visiting United States president Joe Biden and the White House on Monday to celebrate their 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup championships.
BREAKING: @TBLightning will visit the @WhiteHouse as guests of @JoeBiden on Monday to celebrate their 2020 + 2021 Stanley Cup championships. This will be first visit for franchise, as they couldn’t go after ‘04 Cup due to lockout
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) April 22, 2022
The White House visit is normally an annual tradition for hockey teams (and other sports leagues as well), as teams celebrate their championship victories with the leader of the country. Canadian teams usually visit the Canadian Prime Minister and Parliament Hill, but that hasn’t happened since the 1990s, due to the lengthy droughts of the Toronto Blue Jays in baseball and the Canadian teams in hockey, as well as scheduling conflicts preventing the Toronto Raptors visiting after their 2019 championship win.
This will be the first time the Lightning have visited the White House, despite this being their third Stanley Cup win. They missed their first one after the 2004 championship due to the lockout in 2004-05, and they missed their second last year due to the pandemic.
This will also be the first time an NHL team has visited the White House during the Biden administration, as NHL teams haven’t visited since before the pandemic in 2020. Biden was elected into office in November 2020 and was officially inaugurated in January 2021. Biden was also a part of the championship visits from 2009 to 2017, as he was the vice-president for Barack Obama at that time.