Last Thursday, five journalists tragically died after a gunman opened fire at the Capital Gazette headquarters located in Annapolis, MD. Gerald Fischman (61), Rob Hiaasen (59), John McNamara (56), Rebecca Smith (34), and Wendi Winters (65) were all killed in the rampage.

Tuesday morning, while President Trump dominated the headlines after initially refusing a request to lower Amercian flags to half-staff, Leydig quietly brought the Stanley Cup into the Capital Gazette’s temporary office to honor the victims and bring some joy back to the news organization.

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“My heart goes out to the families of those who were lost and to all the employees of Capital Gazette that have to find a way to move on from this terrible tragedy,” Leydig said to the Capital Gazette’s Bill Wagner.

The Caps assistant equipment manager conducted a phone interview from Kettler Capitals Iceplex with Wagner around 2 pm last Thursday before the shooting happened.

“It was right after you and I did the story,” Leydig said, tearing up. “I went back in the laundry room that day at our practice facility. Me and a couple of the the other trainers were doing laundry and we saw on the news flash that there had been a shooting. At the time I said, ‘Oh my gosh’ and my partner Dave Marin goes ‘What’s the matter?’ I said ‘I just gone done doing an interview about 20 minutes ago with a gentleman who may be in the building’ not knowing you were not in that building. Not knowing you all that well, but my heart went out to everybody.”

Leydig began to cry.

“When you get a day with [the Stanley Cup], sometimes I think it’s just good to do good for people and boost morale and bring up some spirits,” Leydig said. “I know it doesn’t replace the victims, but hopefully this is a shot in the arm for people to start a little healing process and to make you guys feel good.”

The Capitals employee then hugged Wagner on camera.

At 12:30, Leydig took the Stanley Cup to Annapolis’s City Dock to let the general public take photos with it.

Finally got my hands on the Stanley Cup!! It felt wonderful!!!! pic.twitter.com/5UFLJbupcY — Bill Wagner (@BWagner_CapGaz) July 3, 2018