Frank and Christine Milota were there at the very beginning, during the lean years for the Capitals in the 1970s.
They certainly wanted to be among Capitals fans on Thursday night, so they sat in row T of section 103 of Capital One Arena for the watch party for Game 5 from Las Vegas.
Both of them wore Capitals shirts while watching the Washington Mystics WNBA game against defending champion Minnesota.
“This is fun. We are enjoying the basketball too,” said Christine Milota, during halftime of the Washington Mystics game against Minnesota.
The couple is retired and lives in Montgomery Village, Maryland. There were season ticket holders for the Capitals for nearly 15 years, making the trek to Landover and the old Capital Centre.
They would attend games with their two sons, Jeff and Kevin. Jeff Milota went on to play club hockey at the University of Delaware while Kevin played lacrosse at Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Penn. and now lives in Florida.
Jeff Milota planned to join his parents at the watch party Thursday.
“He has been texting us during the playoffs,” said Frank Milota, who has been watching the games on television.
The parents attended the watch party at Capital One Arena earlier in the series and wanted to come back Thursday and there able to get tickets online. Tickets went fast for the watch party, so much so that fans who tickets to the Mystics game were selling them at a high rate to Capitals fans.
Frank and Christine Milota have a 10-year-old grandson that is slated to play in a hockey tournament this weekend in Buffalo. His name is Alex, named after a certain No. 8 who stars for the Capitals.
Another fan at the watch party was James Marberger, a rising freshman at Towson University.
He played hockey on a title team at Archbishop Spalding in Severn, Maryland and lives in Annapolis.
“It was terrible,” he said of getting watch party tickets. He was on three phones at the same time and finally hit pay dirt. He brought a replica Stanley Cup to Capital One Arena.
Will the Capitals win? “I hope so,” said Christine Milota.
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