Alzner was a longtime fan favorite in Washington, and No. 22 jerseys even peppered the crowd taking in Habs practice at the Capitals facility.
"It's definitely tough wherever you go, when you're with a team for a long time. And because we had pretty thick roots here, it makes it a little more strange," admitted the 10-year NHLer, who just recently sold his Washington-area home. "It was cool to see so many familiar faces on the other side -- I was chatting to a couple of the guys for 5-10 minutes. The nice thing about hockey though is that it's easy to transition between groups of players, and Montreal has done a good job of welcoming me so far."
Alzner for his part has been able to return the favor early on in the form of playing tour guide.
"A lot of guys were asking questions about the area, and I guess some of them didn't even know the practice rink was here," continued the Burnaby, BC native, who will forego grabbing dinner with his former teammates to instead spend the evening with his new ones. "It's kind of fun to have all the answers for everybody."
And maybe even some exclusive insider answers to help solve the opposition.
"Guys are saying that Washington is a tough place to play. Luckily I know a lot of the little sneaky plays and stuff, unless things have changed," hinted the 6-foot-3, 217-pounder. "Hopefully I can use that to keep them at bay as much as possible. I saw what happened last night though, so I know how hard it can be. It'll be fun to see how we stack up."
Alzner is referring to the Capitals' 5-4 shootout win on Thursday, in which Alexander Ovechkin scored three goals in just seven minutes to come from behind in Ottawa.