Capitals ‘privileged’ to host children at Hockey Fights Cancer Skate

ARLINGTON, Va.-- Lucas Soto had a special reunion with T.J. Oshie at the Washington Capitals' annual Hockey Fights Cancer Skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Saturday.

Soto, a 17-year-old senior hockey player at Bishop Ireton High School here, had last seen the Capitals forward at the 2019 Hockey Fights Cancer Skate, a few months after he was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia on his first day of eighth grade. That skate was a welcomed break during a school year filled with intense chemotherapy, spinal taps, bone marrow biopsies and extensive hospital stays.

Four years later, Soto is cancer-free and making plans for where he’ll go to college next year.

“Being here for the second time definitely means a lot knowing that I beat cancer and I’m able to skate with the same guys that I saw beforehand, and they could see that before and after,” Soto said. “Back then, it just meant getting on the ice and seeing the players I’d looked up to for years and seeing them win the Cup [in 2018] and being able to see those guys. Now, it’s seeing it in hindsight and just being alive now is a big deal and it’s kind of like a reward almost.

“Being on the ice with the guys helped me get through the treatment, so it’s definitely nice seeing them again.”

For each Hockey Fights Cancer Skate, Capitals players are paired with children from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Horizon Day Camp and Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic. Oshie was also paired with Soto in 2019, so he was happy to see him healthy Saturday.

“He’s in remission now. He’s doing great,” Oshie said. “He’s playing hockey, he won a state championship last year. So, that’s a cool story for me. It was great getting to know him again and talking to him while he’s healthy. … He puts a lot of his recovery on little things like what we did today, so it’s cool to hear that and special that he’s able to come back.”

It was the first time skating for 5-year-old Harper Wotring, who was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2020, two months before her second birthday. Capitals forward Tom Wilson helped Wotring experience what it’s like to race around the ice at high speed by holding her under each arm as they circled the rink together.

“She had a blast,” said Harper’s father, Tony Wotring. “She was wearing Tom out on the ice. She was wearing him out. She just wanted to keep on going.”

Wilson didn’t mind.

“It’s pretty special when you’re out there to see the smiles,” Wilson said. “I think that’s kind of what it’s all about. Unfortunately, they’re often going through tough times and days like this can be a bright moment for them, so it’s pretty cool. They’re such great kids, and we’re more than privileged and happy to be a part of it.”

Capitals forward Dylan Strome had fun bonding with 3-year-old Ellie Berg-Wagner, who also skated for the first time. Strome has a 2-year-old daughter, Weslie, and a 7-week-old daughter, Emerson, and confessed he’s been learning songs from the Disney animated movie “Frozen,” such as “Let It Go,” which he sang with Berg-Wagner when they skated Saturday.

“I don’t know if they were pulling one over on me because she was pretty good for a 3-year-old that’s never been on the ice,” Strome said. “She could stand up on her own and she was moving out there by herself. She said she watched the Disney on Ice and she wanted to ice skate ever since then, so she was pretty good.”

Berg-Wagner was 18 months old when she was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma in January 2022. Following 12 months of weekly chemotherapy, which required traveling to New York from her home in Washington for two months, she was declared NED -- no evidence of disease -- in January 2023.

“It’s hard to believe,” Ellie’s mother, Amy Berg, said. “I think if you would’ve asked me a year ago if she would’ve been here, healthy with hair on her head skating on the ice with this hockey player, I would’ve said you’re crazy.”

That’s part of the value of the Hockey Fights Cancer skate.

“What it does is helps the low days feel more manageable,” Amy Berg said. “You think about these kinds of things when you’re sitting in a hospital bed with a child, and they can’t go out and play. So, you think about these kind of opportunities that present themselves and it kind of gets you through the darkness.”