2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 5: Montreal Canadiens (WC2) @ Washington Capitals (M1)
WSH leads 3-1
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: ESPN
In the Capitals region: Monumental Sports Network
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
Two days after a dominant performance from the Montreal Canadiens in their first game at home, their youth and inexperience were spotlighted in Game 4 with some costly errors: from rookie Jakub Dobeš in his first NHL playoff start, to normally reliable defenceman Kaiden Guhle, and even Martin St-Louis in his fourth post-season game as a coach when he pulled Dobeš too early with Montreal trailing by one goal late.
Mistakes were always going to be part of this post-season for such a young group, with the objective being to take lessons from each game and carry them forward to next season. Almost all of Game 4, in which the Canadiens saw the play drop from the high pace of their Game 3 win to a slog through the neutral zone, was the experience of another type of playoff game they can expect to see over the remainder of their long competitive window.
There were some good things to take from the performance, including a couple of power-play goals that helped turn a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead in the second period, created by the youngest members on the team. Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson factored into each of the man-advantage tallies, and also ranked first and second, respectively, among Canadiens players in expected-goal share at five-on-five in Game 4. It was yet another major leap for Demidov as the series goes on, while Hutson just continues to prove himself as a post-season performer, even while berating himself for the defensive errors he’s making.
| Canadiens | Statistics | Capitals |
|---|---|---|
| 47.6% | Expected-goal share | 52.4% |
| 2.75 | Goals per game | 3.50 |
| 3.50 | Goals against per game | 2.75 |
| 38.5% | PP% | 10.0% |
| 90.0% | PK% | 61.5% |
| Cole Caufield (3) | Most goals | Alexander Ovechkin (3) |
| Lane Hutson (5) | Most assists | Dylan Strome (5) |
| Lane Hutson (5) | Most points | Dylan Strome (7) |
Long-term, everything is looking rosy for the Canadiens organization. In the short-term, they have a starting goalie nursing a lower-body injury, defencemen David Savard and Alexandre Carrier who are dealing with injuries, Patrik Laine also out day-to-day, and last game Nick Suzuki looked off in his play. Suzuki wasn’t the usual offensive facilitator with his attempted passes through the neutral zone missing their mark and leading to more time defending than attacking, which hadn’t been the case even through the opening two games on the road. It seems likely that the captain has also picked up an ailment in this physical series, but we’ve now reached an elimination game, a situation he’s often thrived in throughout his career.
Despite Montreal being the team facing an abrupt start of its off-season, there will be more pressure on a Washington Capitals side that hasn’t made it to Round 2 since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. Their management put in a lot of work in the off-season and the team responded to the changes by taking top spot in the conference to get the best matchups through the first three rounds, including this battle with the final club to make it into the playoffs. We’ve already seen the other division winner on the eastern side of the bracket, the Toronto Maple Leafs, fail two attempts to finish off a wild-card team. The Canadiens will try instill a similar sense of disappointment in tonight’s home crowd that seeps into the team on the ice to what Scotiabank Arena provided last night.
The Canadiens surprised most people just by making the playoffs, and now they’ve proven that they have the talent to beat even a top club. It was always expected to be a short stay in the playoffs with so many of the players in their first years in the NHL. But the players have been holding their own, and are too competitive to let up just because the end is in sight. If they do manage to keep their season alive with a win and return home for a Game 6 versus a more nervous opponent, they may keep the curtain from falling on their 2024-25 season a while longer yet.
