The White House: Willie Mitchell

You lifted the Stanley Cup above your head last year. How do you put into words meeting the President of the United States?
“I don’t know. It’s a culmination of a bunch of cool events for us, with accomplishments from the journey we went though. I guess it’s the last one. The team and everyone’s kind of moved on and trying to work towards doing this again, but then it’s always that kind of last thing that comes on the radar as far as you get a chance to meet the President. Not everyone obviously gets to do that. [I’m] just happy. Happy for my teammates. Happy just to be here and get a chance to do this. I think all of us have our own neat and unique journey and [I’m] from a small town. Who would’ve thought a kid from Port McNeill is here at the White House. You could probably ask 20 other guys – they’ve got similar stories. It’s fun for us personally, and you’re also just really happy for your teammates.”

There was talk of Darryl Sutter raising the issue of the XL Pipeline with President Obama. Were you planning on raising any concerns over environmental issues?
“[Before]…we were standing up there…I was chatting with the coaches in the back room. The first thing that went through my mind was wondering what he and Darryl were talking about. I don’t know if it was Alberta beef or that pipeline. I’m curious to whether that conversation happened. Hopefully you can do that due diligence for us.”