Caps and Canadiens start their best-of-seven opening round series Monday in DC
April 21 vs. Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT, ESPN
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7
Montreal Canadiens (40-31-11)
Washington Capitals (51-22-9)
A year after they eked their way into the playoffs in their final game of the NHL’s regular season, the Caps open their pursuit of the 2025 Stanley Cup championship against this season’s version of last year’s Caps. Sitting atop the Eastern Conference standings at the end of the 2024-25 season, the Caps get started in the Stanley Cup playoffs on Monday night when they host the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the opening round series between the two teams.
Both Washington and Montreal rank among the NHL’s most-improved teams this season; the Caps jumped 20 points from 91 to 111, and the Habs hopped from 76 to 91, making the playoffs with a 4-2 victory over Carolina in their final game of the season, and with the exact same point total that got the Caps to the dance last April.
Like Washington last season, Montreal is the team with the lowest share of shot attempts among playoff entrants at 5-on-5 during the regular season. The Caps ranked 26th in the League at 46.66 percent last season, and Montreal ranked 28th this season at 47.48 percent this season.
And while 20 points separate the Caps and the Habs in the NHL standings, much of the disparity between the two teams this season was built in the first half of the campaign, when the Caps were rolling, and Montreal was not.
Washington’s plus-56 goal differential was tied with Vegas for third-best in the NHL this season behind Winnipeg (plus-86) and Tampa Bay (plus-75). And like last season’s Caps and their minus-37 goal differential last season, the Habs have the worst goal differential (minus-20) among this season’s 16 playoff clubs.
But the 76-goal swing between Washington’s plus-56 and Montreal’s minus-20 was built in the season’s first 50 games. Since Jan. 29, both the Caps (17-11-4) and the Habs (16-10-6) have played to an identical .594 point percentage, tied for 13th in the League over that span. And moreover, the Caps (112-112) and the Habs (94-94) are both dead-even in goals for and goals against over that span, so the entire disparity between the two teams – in goal differential and in the standings – was built over the season’s first 50 games.
All that said, the Caps know they played their best hockey early in the season, and they’re well aware of how dangerous Montreal is in relation to a typical eighth seed. And back in October, before the puck dropped to start the 2024-25 season, few were predicting a playoff appearance for the Caps this season, and no one on the planet had them finishing with 111 points.
“Everybody in the media, everybody in the outside world had the Washington Capitals not in the playoffs this year,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s just the reality of where we were, and our guys inside our room. You’ve got guys that maybe aren’t the most skilled; we had no players at the 4 Nations [Face-Off tournament in February], we probably don’t have the most ‘high-end’ skilled team. But we’ve got a group of guys that compete their butts off on a daily basis. They want to win, they’re detailed, and that’s why we’ve been able to accomplish [what we have in] the regular season.
“And that means nothing going into a series and into the playoffs, so it’s our job to bring that same fire and that same intensity that we brought during the regular season.”
It all starts on Monday with Game 1.
“I think you use the positives that you took in the regular season and use them in the playoffs,” says Caps center Dylan Strome. “Through 82 games, you know what type of team you are, you know what type of success your team can have in certain moments, and you know where the troubles lie for your team. It’s a new slate, but we know what Capitals winning hockey looks like, and we’ve got to follow through on that.”
Slight variations on this theme can be found running throughout the Capitals locker room. They know what their game needs to look like for them to have success, and they’ve been driven as a group to play that way for each other, right from the start of the season last Oct. 12.
“The uniqueness about our team is that when we're at our very best,” begins Caps center Nic Dowd, “playing our very best hockey, every single person on this team is playing well, but we're all doing things that we all have to do to play well, and for our team to succeed.
“A lot of teams in the NHL and teams that maybe we've been on, are top-heavy organizations, where you rely on two, three, four or five guys. We do have really high-end players on our team, but those guys are doing the same things that our bottom-line guys are doing to be successful. The difference is that those top guys can take absolutely nothing and turn into something at times – maybe more so than someone like myself – but we're doing the same thing to be successful. I think that's where it’s a team.”
Washington was able to witness the swift growth in the Canadiens’ overall game in the three head-to-head meetings between the two teams during the regular season. On Halloween night of 2024 at Capital One Arena, the Caps got six goals from six different skaters in a 6-3 win over the Habs, a game in which Washington held a 34-15 lead in shots on goal, the second-highest positive shot disparity the Caps had in any game this season.
For the Habs, that Halloween loss was the second of what would be six straight setbacks (0-5-1) on their way to a dismal 4-9-2 start to the season.
Just over a month later in Montreal on Dec. 7, the Caps were finishing a set of back-to-back road games, and the Canadiens – who entered with a respectable 5-3-1 record in their previous nine games – gave them all they could handle. Montreal carried a 2-0 lead into the second period and a 2-1 advantage into the third, but two third-period goals from Tom Wilson – playing despite taking a Jakob Chychrun shot to the cheek earlier in that third period – a power-play marker from Strome, and an excellent night in the nets from Logan Thompson gave the Caps a 4-2 victory.
The final meeting of the season came on Jan. 10 in Washington, when Thompson had to come on in relief of an injured Charlie Lindgren in the first period, with the Caps leading 1-0. Cole Caufield tied it in the second period, and Josh Anderson’s shorthanded goal gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead to carry into the third once again.
Ex-Hab Lars Eller tied it early in the third on a boss play from Ethen Frank, who was making his NHL debut that night. But Habs captain Nick Suzuki won it in overtime with help from Caufield and Lane Hutson, as three of the most dynamic Montreal talents combined to put that one in the win column for the Canadiens. When they walked out of Capital One Arena that night just over three months ago, the Habs were a sizzling 9-2-0 in their previous 11 games.
All this brings us to Monday night’s Game 1, and like everything else that happened in each team’s 82-game regular season, none of it matters now. All 16 teams are seeking the 16 victories that only one of them will be able to achieve, and all 16 teams are starting from zero.
“It’s exciting,” says Caps center P-L Dubois. “You work 82 games for this moment, for this opportunity, and everything restarts at zero. I don't believe in underdogs and all that stuff; it's just 16 teams trying to win the Stanley Cup. And every team is going to show up motivated and playing their best hockey, and that's the fun part.”
