Tonight the Capitals return to Washington for their home opener, but it’s an unfamiliar home. As we all know, Verizon Center was razed the ground this summer and from its ashes was constructed Capital One Arena, where we don’t have to pretend that the cell service is good anymore.

Also different: Karl Alzner will be playing for the other team tonight as the Montreal Canadiens come to town. And, oh yeah, Nathan Walker will become the NHL’s first Australian player!

The game’s at 7 PM on NBC Washington. Chris from the Comments has recap duty.

Record	1-0-0	1-0-0
Shot Attempt %	46.4%	52.9%
PDO	99.4	104.2
Power Play	0%	0%
Penalty Kill	80%	100%

Projected Lines

Via Isabelle “Izzy” Khurshudyan‏ of the WaPo (democracy dies in darkness™), here’s how the Caps lined up this AM.

Burakovsky – Backstrom – Oshie
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Vrana
Connolly – Eller – Chiasson
Walker – Beagle – DSP

Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Carlson
Ness – Chorney

Holtby

Aussie Anthem and Hockey Gear

In honor of Nathan Walker (are you pronouncing it correctly in your head?) playing tonight, we’ve got some new merch available. Look at that pretty shirt.

And, in a streak of stupid brilliance I’d expect only from RMNB readers and the Caps fan community in general, there’s a petition to get the Australian anthem played at the game tonight. I’ve signed, as have more than 300 other people with varying levels of sincerity. Thank you, Ben Scarbro.

Here’s the anthem itself, as sung by one of my top-20 favorite Australians, ya girl ONJ.

Storylines

• Like I said, Nathan Walker will make his NHL debut tonight. It’ll be the first debut for an Australian player in the league.
• Nate Schmidt got an apple on the first goal in Vegas Golden Knights history.
• Hurricane Nate zeroes in on New Orleans.
• Not name Nate: Alex Ovechkin wants you to know that hedid not lose weight over the summer. I thought this was obvious?
• Also, Ian is on the Ovi gear beat, which is more interesting that you might think.
• Young Caps did not play in the season opener because they were too distracted by finding a neat place to live in Old Town or something.
• Jason Rogers of Japers Rink urges you to be polite to Karl Alzner. I’ll rejoinder with this: I don’t think whooping is impolite.
• Karl Alzner and Tom Wilson were at the Nats game. The Nats lost. Also the Yankees lost. The Orioles did not play at all.

Top 20 Favorite Australians

Muad’dib (Photo: usfws_pacificsw)

1. Nancy Wake
2. The feral kid with the boomerang from Mad Max 2
3. Baz Lurhman
4. The guy with the gyrocopter from Mad Max 2
5. Bon Scott (singin’, Let There Be Rock)
6. The goblin (or is he an orc?) who says “hands off that shiny shirt” in the last Lord of the Rings movie
7. But also Galadriel, she is basically Australian too
8. Ian Frazer, who, with Jian Zhou, co-invented the HPV vaccine
9. Pop singer Kimbra, who, c’mon, let’s get a new album out
10. Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman (tie)
11. Kangaroo mice and Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers (tie)
12. Ya girl ONJ
13. Daniel Johns from Silverchair, but not Daniel Johns from Aerial Love
14. Claire from Lost
15. Nathan Walker
16. Michael Hutchence from INXS
17. Director George Miller, mostly for Babe but also for Babe 2: Pig in the City
18. Huge Ackman
19. Musician Nick Cave
20. Steve Irwin, who was more of a conservationist than a croc hunter

Don’t @ me.

Full Coverage of Caps vs Canadiens

Headline photo: Cara Bahniuk