WASHINGTON -- It is a measure of Eric Staal's graciousness that he actually laughs at the joke.
It's not a particularly good joke, and perhaps at one point, even as recently as last summer, it might have seemed cruel or just plain stupid.
But here we are, sitting in a coffee shop near the Minnesota Wild's hotel in D.C. after a recent mid-March blizzard has blanketed the Northeast. Staal has arrived early, wearing his toque and winter coat, and fixed himself a small coffee.
I ask him if he visited the White House the previous day.