Photo: David Kirouac/Imagn Images
The Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens will face off for the second time ever in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Montreal overcame a 3-1 series deficit to beat Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington in seven games during the 2010 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. The best-of-seven series will start with Game 1 on Monday night at Capital One Arena (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, ESPN nationally).
SCHEDULE
Graphic: @Capitals
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Montreal: 40-31-11 regular-season record (.555 points percentage), second wild-card in Eastern Conference
Washington: 51-22-9 regular-season record (.677 points percentage), first in Eastern Conference
REGULAR-SEASON SERIES
- 10/31/2024: 6-3 Washington
- 12/7/2024: 4-2 Washington
- 1/10/2025: 3-2 Montreal (OT)
HOW EACH TEAM IS ENTERING THE POSTSEASON
Washington: 4-7-1 (.375, tied with Carolina Hurricanes for the worst of the 16 teams to qualify for postseason), including three losses in their final four games, since March 25
Montreal: 15-5-6 (.692: second in Eastern Conference, fourth in NHL) after 4 Nations Faceoff but lost three in a row (0-1-2) before winning season finale vs. Carolina (who scratched seven regulars) on April 16
REGULAR-SEASON TEAM LEADERS
Ovechkin (1.12, 73 in 65), who missed 16 games with a broken leg in November and December, and Strome (1.00) both averaged at least a point-per-game for Washington. Ovechkin, Tom Wilson (33-32-65 in 81), and Aliaksei Protas (30-36-66 in 76) all hit the 30-goal mark while Strome (29) came up just short. Connor McMichael (26-31-57 in 82), Jakob Chychrun (20-27-47 in 74), and Pierre-Luc Dubois (20-46-66 in 82) all eclipsed 20.
Suzuki, who scored 30 goals, tallied at least 19 more points than any other Canadien. Caufield (70 points in 82) and Hutson (6-60-66 in 82) were the only other Canadiens to score at least 60 points while Juraj Slafkovsky (18-33-51 in 79) was the only other to notch 50.
REGULAR-SEASON TEAM STATISTICS
Washington came out on top in nearly every category over the course of the regular season except for faceoffs.
Washington also upped Montreal in each five-on-five metric, although the two teams were around the same neighborhood when it came to goaltending.
GOALTENDING MATCHUP
After Logan Thompson missed Washington’s final seven regular-season games with an upper-body injury, the Capitals could begin the series with Lindgren as the starter. Lindgren posted an .875 save percentage and 2.19 goals-against average in 82:15 over two games against Montreal during the regular season. Montembeault stopped 31 of 35 shots faced (.886 save percentage, 4.17 goals-against average) in Washington’s 4-2 win at Bell Centre.
Thompson went 31-6-6 with a .910 save percentage, 2.49 goals-against average, and two shutouts during the regular season, including 1-0-1 with an .889 save percentage (40 saves on 45 shots faced in 98:46 of action) and 3.04 goals-against average against Montreal. He made 22 saves in Quebec on December 7.
INJURIES
Washington
- Protas (foot)
- D Martin Fehervary (foot)
- LW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW T.J. Oshie (back)
Montreal
WILL WIN IF
Washington: they get solid goaltending and improved defensive play in front of Lindgren and/or Thompson, re-find their pre-4 Nations form, Strome and Dubois keep taking steps.
Montreal: they tighten up defensively, rookie Ivan Demidov builds off of his strong first two NHL games and solidifies a spot in their top-six forward group, one of Christian Dvorak and Alex Newhook grabs hold of the second-line center role and runs with it.
X-FACTORS
Montreal: Dvorak — Montreal’s depth down the middle is vulnerable after Suzuki, especially with Dach out. Dvorak (12-21-33 in 82) and Newhook (15-11-26 in 82) did not put up statistics of those usually worthy of a second-line center status during the regular season. After Strome broke out as a first-line center and Dubois put up the best season of his NHL career, Montreal needs to counter Washington’s depth down the middle.
Washington: Dubois — After Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, who both came up huge in the Capitals’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2018, left during the 2023-24 season, Washington had a hole in their top-six center group. The team brought in the 26-year-old to fill that spot and Dubois set career-highs in assists (46) and points (66) in 82 games in addition to being looked up to shut down the opposition’s top lines. The Capitals need Dubois, a Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec native, to keep going for the team to make a deep postseason run.
PROJECTED LINES
Montreal
Caufield — Suzuki — Slafkovsky
Brendan Gallagher – Dvorak — Josh Anderson
Patrik Laine – Newhook — Demidov
Emil Heineman — Jake Evans — Joel Armia
Matheson — Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle — Hutson
Jayden Struble — David Savard
Montembeault
Jakub Dobés
- Scratched
- LW Michael Pezzetta
- D Arber Xhekaj
Washington
Ovechkin — Strome — Anthony Beauvillier
Connor McMichael – Dubois — Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Taylor Raddysh
Chychrun — Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Thompson
Lindgren
- Scratched
- RW Ethen Frank
- D Dylan McIlrath
- D Ethan Bear
- G Clay Stevenson
BETTING ODDS (Caesers)
- Series Betting
- Montreal: +215
- Washington: -267
- Series Score
- Washington 4-1: +300
- Washington 4-2: +350
- Washington 4-3: +400
- Washington 4-0: +500
- Montreal 4-3: +800
- Montreal 4-2: +900
- Montreal 4-1: +1500
- Montreal 4-0: +3500
- Total Number Of Games
- 4: +450
- 5: +220
- 6: +215
- 7: +250
- Series Spreads
- Series Handicap 2
- Montreal +2.5: -190
- Washington -2.5: +155
- Series Handicap
- Montreal +1.5: +120
- Washington -1.5: -150
- Series Handicap 3
- Montreal -1.5: +425
- Washington +1.5: -600
- Series Handicap 4
- Montreal -2.5: +900
- Washington +2.5: -1800
- Series Handicap 2
STAFF SERIES PREDICTIONS
- Jon: Washington in 7
- Ethan: Washington in 6
- Della: Washington in 6
- Diane: Washington in 6
- Harrison: Washington in 5
- Eric: Washington in 5
- Aaron: Washington in 6
By Harrison Brown
