Whether his voice is booming with excitement throughout Capital One Arena following a Caps goal, or unleashing the fury to help spark a late comeback, PA announcer Wes Johnson’s vocal talents are on full blast during Caps games. But roughly an hour before the puck drops, he puts another talent to work: Doodling.
Killing time before games, Johnson started drawing game-related images on the outside of empty coffee cups he had finished drinking. Then people started asking him for the cups after the game.
“You get DNA with that, but good luck,” he said.
Johnson has since refined the operation. He uses fresh cups and starts drawing before warm ups. The process takes roughly 15 minutes and is done by the time warmups are over.
For cups not given away, Johnson had been throwing them out, until Monumental Network analyst Craig Laughlin said they should be sold at Laughlin’s annual charity golf tournament. The cups raised nearly $300 at the 2024 event.
“$300 dollars to help fight cancer just because I wanted to doodle on a coffee cup,” Johnson said. “I think that goes a long way.”
The design starts with a black pen and an outline before being filled in with color. Johnson has a variety of utensils at his disposal including sharpies, markers and colored pencils. He said there have been days where he has struggled to come up with an idea, but once he gets going, everything just flows. “There’s nothing more intimidating than a blank canvas —— or a blank cup.”
“For me, there’s no pressure, it’s just fun,” Johnson continued. “That’s what I got to look at it as. ”
He then posts the finished design on social media. For him, it represents a form of change from his previous pregame shenanigans.
Johnson used to post the “Game Face” when he was doing public address from the penalty box, but after being moved to press row, he thought it was time for something different to match the different atmosphere.
Johnson said it’s always fun to find a new thing to do before the game.
“We’ve gone through a lot of different things. Whether it be the game face, whether it be unleash the fury, whether it be unleash the coffee cup,” Johnson said with a chuckle, “You find the little things along the way that kind of define the moment. This one is just defining this moment. I’m very excited for what tomorrow brings.”
