Nathan Walker's first NHL Stanley Cup game did not go so well.
The 24-year-old from Sydney was a late scratching from the game and then watched from the bench as his Washington Capitals let two late goals in to fall 6-4 to the Las Vegas Knights in Monday's opener.
The game was played in front of a raucous crowd inside Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena and the Capitals will face the same fury with game two returning to the venue on Wednesday.
The Capitals, who blew a 4-3 lead in the final period, are expecting to rebound.
"I'm confident we have another level and that's exciting," Capitals coach Barry Trotz told reporters after the game.
Trotz could only take 20 players into the game so Walker and six others on the Capitals' squad were announced as scratchings minutes before the game.
Walker, who started playing ice hockey as a six-year-old in Sydney and as a 13-year-old convinced his parents to allow him to move to the Czech Republic to seek better competition, said before the game he was willing to take whatever role the Capitals needed in the best-of-seven series.
"I'm there for my team-mates," Walker told AAP.
"You have to be a team guy and be team first which is what I do and if I have a chance to get plugged into the line-up then I just have to be ready for it."
The Capitals and Knights are both chasing their first Stanley Cup.
The Knights are in their first season in the NHL.
In the aftermath of last October's mass shooting on the Vegas Strip that claimed the lives of 58 people, the casino city has embraced the team.
There were four lead changes in the game, but it was the Knights' Tomas Nosek who scored the two final goals to clinch the win.
