Kings, Galaxy to visit White House on Monday

Even though the Kings were recently urged to jump off The Stanley Cup Train, there’s still one last stop on the victory circuit commemorating their 2014 title. At 11:00 a.m. PT on Monday, for the second time in three seasons, the Los Angeles Kings and Galaxy will be honored by President Obama, representing the memorable spoils that only champions in major professional and collegiate sports get to experience.

“It’ll be good for the new guys, I think,” Darryl Sutter said, noting that while there hasn’t been extensive roster changeover from 2012, there are still a handful of players who have won one, not two, championships with the club.

“There’s a handful of staff, too, that are new, when you think about it – Davis and a couple [members] of the training staff,” Sutter continued.

Tyler Toffoli, who watched the ceremony in March, 2013 from the seating gallery, will be on the stage with the rest of his teammates on Monday. He, Marian Gaborik, Jake Muzzin, Robyn Regehr and Davis Payne will experience the ceremony for the first time. At this point, it is unclear whether Mike Richards, Jeff Schultz and Tanner Pearson will be a part of Monday’s ceremony.

UPDATE, 6:15 PM ET: Tanner Pearson traveled with the team today and will attend Monday’s ceremony.

“I was hoping that his family would be with him this time…It was right before Easter the last time we were there, and his wife and daughters had already gone to wherever they go for their Easter…Anyways, they were there, and then he was going. That’s all I remember. I think one of the girls is a good – is it volleyball or basketball? One of them, I just remember him saying, that she was [athletic].”

Darryl Sutter, on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper being welcomed into Calgary’s room while he was the Flames’ general manager:
Yeah, he was a good hockey fan. Actually, he was a very knowledgeable hockey fan. I think he still keeps his house in Calgary. His son was a big fan. When he’d come down, he was a hockey fan. It wasn’t like he was coming around, trying to be – it was cool for his son to meet the players. I used to always tease him about that because of who he was cheering for. They were probably around quite a few games the year we went to the finals, and I used to always tease him who his favorite team was – because you’d see him at Leafs games a lot – if it was Calgary, or if he was just a front runner. He was a really knowledgeable hockey fan. I’m sure our President – he is a knowledgeable sports fan. When we were there last time, he was really sincere about knowing. He knew where I had played, and he talked about some of that stuff- [Reporter: From Chicago.] Yeah, because he was from [Chicago], and he knew what was going on with the team. He was informed. That was the most impressive part about the last time, actually.

Coverage of the 2013 White House visit

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A photo posted by Jon Rosen (@rambleonrosen) on

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