Caps and Canadiens Tangle in Recreation 1 – NHL.com

Caps and Canadiens begin their best-of-seven opening spherical sequence Monday in DC
April 21 vs. Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Area
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 12 months after they eked their manner into the playoffs of their last sport of the NHL’s common season, the Caps open their pursuit of the 2025 Stanley Cup championship in opposition to this season’s model of final 12 months’s Caps. Sitting atop the Jap Convention standings on the finish of the 2024-25 season, the Caps get began within the Stanley Cup playoffs on Monday evening once they host the Montreal Canadiens in Recreation 1 of the opening spherical sequence between the 2 groups.
Each Washington and Montreal rank among the many NHL’s most-improved groups this season; the Caps jumped 20 factors from 91 to 111, and the Habs hopped from 76 to 91, making the playoffs with a 4-2 victory over Carolina of their last sport of the season, and with the very same level whole that acquired the Caps to the dance final April.
Like Washington final season, Montreal is the staff with the bottom share of shot makes an attempt amongst playoff entrants at 5-on-5 in the course of the common season. The Caps ranked twenty sixth within the League at 46.66 p.c final season, and Montreal ranked twenty eighth this season at 47.48 p.c this season.
And whereas 20 factors separate the Caps and the Habs within the NHL standings, a lot of the disparity between the 2 groups this season was constructed within the first half of the marketing campaign, when the Caps had been rolling, and Montreal was not.
Washington’s plus-56 purpose differential was tied with Vegas for third-best within the NHL this season behind Winnipeg (plus-86) and Tampa Bay (plus-75). And like final season’s Caps and their minus-37 purpose differential final season, the Habs have the worst purpose differential (minus-20) amongst this season’s 16 playoff golf equipment.
However the 76-goal swing between Washington’s plus-56 and Montreal’s minus-20 was constructed within the season’s first 50 video games. Since Jan. 29, each the Caps (17-11-4) and the Habs (16-10-6) have performed to an an identical .594 level proportion, tied for thirteenth within the League over that span. And furthermore, the Caps (112-112) and the Habs (94-94) are each dead-even in objectives for and objectives in opposition to over that span, so the whole disparity between the 2 groups – in purpose differential and within the standings – was constructed over the season’s first 50 video games.
All that mentioned, the Caps know they performed their greatest hockey early within the season, they usually’re effectively conscious of how harmful Montreal is in relation to a typical eighth seed. And again in October, earlier than the puck dropped to begin the 2024-25 season, few had been predicting a playoff look for the Caps this season, and nobody on the planet had them ending with 111 factors.
“Everyone within the media, all people within the outdoors world had the Washington Capitals not within the playoffs this 12 months,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It’s simply the truth of the place we had been, and our guys inside our room. You’ve acquired guys that perhaps aren’t essentially the most expert; we had no gamers on the 4 Nations [Face-Off tournament in February], we most likely don’t have essentially the most ‘high-end’ expert staff. However we’ve acquired a bunch of men that compete their butts off each day. They need to win, they’re detailed, and that’s why we’ve been capable of accomplish [what we have in] the common season.
“And which means nothing going right into a sequence and into the playoffs, so it’s our job to deliver that very same fireplace and that very same depth that we introduced in the course of the common season.”
All of it begins on Monday with Recreation 1.
“I believe you employ the positives that you just took within the common season and use them within the playoffs,” says Caps heart Dylan Strome. “By means of 82 video games, you already know what kind of staff you’re, you already know what kind of success your staff can have in sure moments, and you already know the place the troubles lie on your staff. It’s a brand new slate, however we all know what Capitals successful hockey appears like, and we’ve acquired to observe by on that.”
Slight variations on this theme may be discovered operating all through the Capitals locker room. They know what their sport must appear to be for them to have success, they usually’ve been pushed as a bunch to play that manner for one another, proper from the beginning of the season final Oct. 12.
“The individuality about our staff is that once we’re at our perfect,” begins Caps heart Nic Dowd, “taking part in our perfect hockey, each single individual on this staff is taking part in effectively, however we’re all doing issues that all of us should do to play effectively, and for our staff to succeed.
“Lots of groups within the NHL and groups that perhaps we have been on, are top-heavy organizations, the place you depend on two, three, 4 or 5 guys. We do have actually high-end gamers on our staff, however these guys are doing the identical issues that our bottom-line guys are doing to achieve success. The distinction is that these high guys can take completely nothing and switch into one thing at instances – perhaps extra so than somebody like myself – however we’re doing the identical factor to achieve success. I believe that is the place it’s a staff.”
Washington was capable of witness the swift development within the Canadiens’ general sport within the three head-to-head conferences between the 2 groups in the course of the common season. On Halloween evening of 2024 at Capital One Area, the Caps acquired six objectives from six completely different skaters in a 6-3 win over the Habs, a sport during which Washington held a 34-15 lead in pictures on purpose, the second-highest optimistic shot disparity the Caps had in any sport this season.
For the Habs, that Halloween loss was the second of what could be six straight setbacks (0-5-1) on their solution to a dismal 4-9-2 begin to the season.
Simply over a month later in Montreal on Dec. 7, the Caps had been ending a set of back-to-back highway video games, and the Canadiens – who entered with a decent 5-3-1 document of their earlier 9 video games – gave all of them they may deal with. Montreal carried a 2-0 lead into the second interval and a 2-1 benefit into the third, however two third-period objectives from Tom Wilson – taking part in regardless of taking a Jakob Chychrun shot to the cheek earlier in that third interval – a power-play marker from Strome, and a very good evening within the nets from Logan Thompson gave the Caps a 4-2 victory.
The ultimate assembly of the season got here on Jan. 10 in Washington, when Thompson needed to come on in aid of an injured Charlie Lindgren within the first interval, with the Caps main 1-0. Cole Caufield tied it within the second interval, and Josh Anderson’s shorthanded purpose gave the Canadiens a 2-1 result in carry into the third as soon as once more.
Ex-Hab Lars Eller tied it early within the third on a boss play from Ethen Frank, who was making his NHL debut that evening. However Habs captain Nick Suzuki received it in extra time with assist from Caufield and Lane Hutson, as three of essentially the most dynamic Montreal skills mixed to place that one within the win column for the Canadiens. After they walked out of Capital One Area that evening simply over three months in the past, the Habs had been a scorching 9-2-0 of their earlier 11 video games.
All this brings us to Monday evening’s Recreation 1, and like every little thing else that occurred in every staff’s 82-game common season, none of it issues now. All 16 groups are searching for the 16 victories that solely one in every of them will be capable of obtain, and all 16 groups are ranging from zero.
“It’s thrilling,” says Caps heart P-L Dubois. “You’re employed 82 video games for this second, for this chance, and every little thing restarts at zero. I do not imagine in underdogs and all that stuff; it is simply 16 groups attempting to win the Stanley Cup. And each staff goes to point out up motivated and taking part in their greatest hockey, and that is the enjoyable half.”

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