WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on the Washington Capitals‘ Stanley Cup parade (all times local):2:30 p.m.Barry Trotz says the Capitals are going to do it again http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-alexander-kerfoot-jersey , and T.J. Oshie led fans in a chant of ”back-to-back” at the rally celebrating the Stanley Cup champions.Captain Alex Ovechkin fired up fans who filled the National Mall down to the Washington Monument by reminding them that he said at the start of the year they weren’t going to be as bad as some thought. Then he and his teammates sang along to Queen’s ”We Are The Champions” to complete the rally.—12:50 p.m.The Capitals’ Stanley Cup parade has ended with a rally upcoming.Tens of thousands of fans lined the route along Constitution Avenue, including hundreds on the steps of the national archives creating a sea of red.The final bus with Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Orpik, owner Ted Leonsis and team president Dick Patrick also featured the Stanley Cup.Fans along Constitution chanted, ”Raise the Cup!” and ”Ovi! Ovi! Ovi!”Ovechkin sat at the front of the double-decker bus, alternating between resting his arms on the trophy, raising it, and drinking out of his blue Bud Light bottle.—11 a.m.The caravan is on the move for the start of the Washington Capitals’ first Stanley Cup parade.More than 40 vehicles – buses and convertibles carrying players and staff – began moving down 23rd Street toward Constitution Avenue led by 30-plus police officers on motorcycles. The parade officially begins at 17th and Constitution and ends at 7th and the National Mall.Conn Smythe Trophy winner Alex Ovechkin and owner Ted Leonsis have the Stanley Cup at the tail end of the parade.—10 a.m.Capitals players, staff members and their families are on their way to the start of the parade route after taking a team photo at Capital One Arena. Fans lined the exit to the arena chanting and cheering as players boarded several buses to get to Constitution Avenue.A police escort cleared the way for the buses to get through D.C. traffic as throngs of people waited along the route and at the National Mall, where a rally will cap the celebration.—6 a.m.The Stanley Cup-champion Capitals will celebrate the city’s first major four pro sports championship in 26 years with a parade down Constitution Avenue.It’s the first sports parade in Washington since the NFL’s Redskins in 1992. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and his teammates will travel from 17th to 7th on Constitution to a rally on the National Mall by the afternoon.They’ll be joined by four F-16 Fighting Falcons from the D.C. Air National Guard who will perform a flyover about 25 minutes in. Season-ticket holders who have remained from the team’s eight-win inaugural season in 1974-75 Womens Carl Soderberg Jersey , high school marching bands and the D.C. fire department pipes and drums will be among those participating.—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals John Tavares isn’t the only free agent going back to a familiar place.Several players are returning to their former teams and comfortable situations – from James van Riemsdyk going back to Philadelphia on the second-richest July 1 deal to Matt Cullen taking a significant pay cut to rejoin the Pittsburgh Penguins he helped win the Stanley Cup twice. It’s not quite the tug at the heartstrings that led Tavares to sign a $77 million, seven-year deal with his boyhood Toronto Maple Leafs, but familiarity was part of the bustle on the opening day of NHL free agency .”I have that comfortablity with knowing a lot about the organization having played there in the past and having a lot of familiar faces still on the staff and stuff like that,” van Riemsdyk said after signing a $35 million, five-year deal with the Flyers. ”Even just remembering to my time previously is just how bad obviously they want to win and they’re willing to put the resources into that. That passion and that commitment to that was a big thing for me.”Unsure there’d be room for him after his old team re-signed Riley Sheahan, Cullen signed a $650,000, one-year deal with the Penguins after spending a season back home in Minnesota. Tomas Plekanec was away from Montreal for only a few months, signing a bonus-laden $2.25 million, one-year deal with the Canadiens after they traded him to the rival Maple Leafs at the deadline.Plekanec had planned since the end of the season to go back to Montreal, where his family remained when he went to Toronto. He will be back at the Bell Centre on a contract that can be worth another $1.25 million in incentives. The 35-year-old will get to play his 1,000th career regular-season game in his familiar blue Gabriel Landeskog Jersey Kids , white and red uniform this October.”That was my priority,” Plekanec said. ”I wanted to come back.”While Plekanec obviously felt a strong connection to Montreal after 14 seasons there, David Perron will be playing for the St. Louis Blues for the third time in his NHL career after signing for $16 million over four years. Perron spent his first six seasons with the Blues after they took him in the first round in 2007, returned as a free agent two summers ago, was taken by the Golden Knights in the expansion draft a year ago and is back again after setting career highs with 50 assists and 66 points in Las Vegas.”Obviously (the Golden Knights) made the right decision with the way that David played for them,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. ”He certainly could’ve made more money on the market. He wanted to come back.”Thomas Vanek enjoyed his 48 games with the Detroit Red Wings in 2016-17 so much he wanted to sign with them last July but they didn’t have enough salary-cap space. When the opportunity presented itself this time, the 34-year-old winger zeroed in on a one-year deal and chose Detroit’s $3 million offer over a few other options.”I loved it there,” Vanek said. ”It was a good it. I really liked the whole culture of the organization and the guys were great. We tried to make it work last year. It didn’t work out, so I’m happy it did this year.”No one says hockey players can’t go home, but there has to be mutual interest. It was simple for the Penguins, who lacked something without Cullen in their second-round loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals. Pittsburgh had tried to reacquire the 41-year-old center at the trade deadline.It was a bit more complicated for the Flyers, who traded van Riemsdyk to Toronto in 2012 in a one-for-one deal for bruising defenseman Luke Schenn. That was under a previous regime that believed the 6-foot-3 http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-j.t.-compher-jersey , 217-pound left winger wasn’t tough enough, but GM Ron Hextall sees a player who checks the boxes for a playoff contender with a few holes.”We felt with the fit that we needed some size,” Hextall said. ”We needed goal-scoring. We need a left winger. This one just fit all around for us and I think James felt the same way.”The personality fit was there, too, because Flyers management knew van Riemsdyk, who is 29. Coming through Philadelphia’s system as the second overall pick in 2007 helped with Hextall being willing to make his biggest free agent splash.”We know the person – people inside this organization – (and) obviously that helps,” Hextall said.Van Riemsdyk did his homework by talking with captain Claude Giroux, winger Jakub Voracek and recent Flyers players before choosing to return to his first NHL organization. He also fondly remembered the Flyers’ run to the Cup Final in 2010.”Hopefully again we get a chance to do something like that in the future,” he said.—