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Caps president Dick Patrick reflects on winning Lester Patrick Award

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Washington Capitals president Dick Patrick will be the first member of the franchise to accept the Lester Patrick Award, according to Mike Vogel of the team’s official site.

If his last name wasn’t a hint, the trophy is quite familiar to Dick Patrick for a simple reason: Lester Patrick was his grandfather.

Patrick discussed the honor of winning the award, but more than anything else, how he grew up with the sport.

Capitals owner Ted Leonsis gave the most amusing anecdote of that obsession to Vogel, though.

“I’ve looked at the Patrick family as being in the bedrock to the NHL,” Leonsis said. “ And Dick is an old school, traditional, hockey man. He really is. He authentically celebrates it in everything he does. He got married and the day after his wedding, he and his wife went to a hockey game, and then went on their honeymoon. His wife said to me, ‘So I knew from day one of the marriage where the priorities were, honeymoon or hockey game.’”

Leonsis told Vogel that he “defers to Dick” whenever there’s a pressing hockey question because of his experience and ... passion.

“If I close my eyes, and I know you’re not supposed to jinx it, but I don’t think he would do anything with the Stanley Cup but bring it to bed with him and spoon with the Cup,” Leonsis said.

Would Capitals fans be OK with their president giving the Cup the Sidney Crosby treatment, though?