2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 1: Montreal Canadiens (WC2) @ Washington Capitals (M1)
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the Capitals region: Monumental Sports Network
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens had very different starts to the 2024-25 season. On December 1, the Canadiens lost for a fourth time in five games to fall to fall to 8-13-3 on the season and were second-last in the league with just 19 points. At that time, the Capitals had won four in a row to improve to 17-6-1 and never looked back as they went on to the claim the most points of any Eastern Conference team this season, with 111.
Washington had appeared to be in the death throes of the Alexander Ovechkin era for several years, not advancing past the first round since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018, and missing the playoffs entirely at the end of the 2022-23 campaign. Rather than just sitting back and waiting for their fortunes to change, the Capitals were one of the busiest teams in the off-season.
They shipped goaltender Darcy Kuemper to the Los Angeles Kings to acquire Pierre-Luc Dubois, a player who was having a hard time finding a home in the NHL. They replaced Kuemper with Logan Thompson in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights. They also made a move to acquire Jakob Chychrun, who didn’t fit with the Ottawa Senators as that franchise had hoped, but still had the chance to be an offensive help to the Capitals. In total, seven new players were added via trade or free agency, a major shakeup for an organization that clearly needed one.
All of those big moves hit pay dirt. Dubois posted a career-high 66 points after contributing just 40 last year for the Kings. Chychrun scored 20 goals on his way to new career best point total as well. And Thompson had a 31-win season, leading a tandem with Charlie Lindgren that helped Washington be a top-10 defensive team.
Montreal, meanwhile, made just one move in the summer, acquiring Patrik Laine from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jordan Harris in an attempt to address the team’s goal-scoring issues. Laine made his debut on the league’s 31st-place place on December 3, and the goal-scoring that general manager Kent Hughes made the trade for showed up immediately. Laine netted a power-play goal in his first game, and eight in first nine contests. A month after his debut, when the Habs ended their annual post-Christmas road trip, the team had more than doubled its season win total and was suddenly right in the playoff race.
If you go back to the start of Laine’s tenure and compare the records of these two teams, the disparity isn’t as great as the one-versus-eight playoff matchup would suggest. Washington was 34-16-8 from that date; Montreal went 32-18-8 after the Finnish sniper’s first game. That’s the Eastern Conference’s second-best points percentage in that span (.655) versus its fifth (.621) from the point the Canadiens had their full roster available for the first time.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Capitals |
|---|---|---|
| 40-31-11 | Record | 51-22-9 |
| 47.0% (28th) | Expected-goal share | 51.2% (11th) |
| 2.96 (17th) | Goals per game | 3.49 (2nd) |
| 3.18 (22nd) | Goals against per game | 2.78 (9th) |
| 20.1% (21st) | PP% | 23.5% (14th) |
| 80.9% (9th) | PK% | 82.0% (5th) |
| 1-2-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 2-0-1 |
| Cole Caufield (37) | Most goals | Alexander Ovechkin (44) |
| Lane Hutson (60) | Most assists | Dylan Strome (53) |
| Nick Suzuki (89) | Most points | Dylan Strome (82) |
How much energy the Canadiens burned through to achieve that record is an important question. The Canadiens have essentially been at playoff-level intensity since the 4 Nations Face-Off ended, while the Capitals were cruising to the finish line with a big lead in the Metropolitan Division. The Capitals spent the final week resting players; the Canadiens battled right to the wire to secure their berth in the final period of their season. The four-day break between Montreal’s last game and the start of this series was a welcome decision for a weary Habs team, and allowed them some vital rest that their end-of-season schedule did not.
Washington’s comfortable position also allowed them to fully focus on Alexander Ovechkin’s run to becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer. He accomplished that feat on April 6 in a race that had captured the attention of the entire hockey world. That probably explains why the Capitals lost eight of their final 12 games as the focus switched to an individual’s performance rather than the team’s. Montreal had an all-time record chase of its own going on. Not one that garnered quite so much international attention, but still a big one as Lane Hutson ended up tying the all-time rookie defenceman assists record on the winning goal in game 82.
The Capitals’ season being highlighted by an end-of-career record and Montreal’s by a career-opening feat points to the difference in experience between the two teams. The Capitals’ current roster has an average age of 28.56 years which ranks in the middle of the pack. Montreal slots in as the youngest at almost three years their junior. Few of the Canadiens players have even played an NHL post-season game. The difference is most apparent on defence where the Capitals have no blue-liners on the roster under the age of 25 while the Canadiens have four, including a couple of members of their top two pairings.
Yet it’s the oldest member of the Habs’ defence corps who has the spotlight as the series begins. David Savard has plenty of playoff experience — 57 games’ worth — and a Stanley Cup on his résumé, providing some peace of mind for his decision to call it a career at the end of this playoff run. It will be very similar to the Canadiens’ miracle run in 2021 when Shea Weber’s career was also in the balance, only this time the public is aware of the situation. Montreal was able to rally around the captain four years ago and finish as runner-up. That would be a stunning accomplishment for such a young group, but it all starts with one win, which Savard and his Canadiens will be trying to grab on the road in Game 1.
