Saturday Caps Clips: Capitals vs. Canadiens Game Day

Your savory breakfast links:

• Delve into the history of Alex Ovechkin’s many, many hat tricks. [Rink]
• Previews of tonight’s home opener against Montreal from Vogs, Peerless, NoVa Caps, Montreal Gazette, and be sure to swing by our SB Nation pals over at Eyes on the Prize for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
• The day is finally here: Nathan Walker will be in the lineup tonight, making him the first Australian to play in the NHL. [Caps, Caps OT, NBCSWA, Caps Outsider, NoVa Caps, WTOP, the Australian, ESPN, NBCSports, Journal de Montreal, Sporting News]
• The path from Down Under to the NHL was not an easy one for Walker. [NoVa Caps ]
• Also in the lineup? Karl Alzner, as he has been for the last ten years... only tonight he’ll be wearing a different red, white, and blue. [Canadiens, RDS]
• A few leftovers from Thursday’s season-opening shootout win in Ottawa. [Rink Rank, Dump ‘n Chase, NBCSWA, Silver Seven Sens, RMNB, WNST, Puck Prose, Senshot]
• Wednesday and Thursday night’s openers featured not one, not two, but four hat tricks - a once-in-a-century occurrence. [AP, The Score]
• Despite their two different nationalities, the Caps’ top trio gets along with a shared language of hockey. [WaPo]
• Welcome to the Evgeny Kuznetsov era! [FiCP]
• There are a lot of unknowns for this Caps team after two disappointing playoff exits and a lot of roster turnover. [WTOP]
• Two of the newer faces in the lineup, Tyler Graovac and Devante Smith-Pelly, are excited for the chance at a new start with the Caps. [Caps]
• Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the new Caps fight song for 2017-18. [Source of the Spring]
• In the aftermath of the expansion Golden Knights’ first game, travel back in time and check out the storied history of NHL expansion. [The Star]
• Finally, happy 68th birthday to Jim Hrycuik and happy 29th to Cameron Schilling.