As a boy, Capitals forward Nathan Walker fashioned his own homemade hockey goals out of PVC pipe — despite knowing his contraptions wouldn’t last long — so that he could don his inline skates and practice shooting pucks in his garage.
He was obsessed with hockey — despite the sport’s relative obscurity in Walker’s native Australia.
Boyhood obsession turned into lifelong commitment, and Walker, now 23, made history Saturday as the first Australian to play in an NHL game.
Even better, he notched his first career goal in the Capitals’ 6-1 rout over the Montreal Canadiens.