Back in October, if you told a Montreal Canadiens fan that the team would make the playoffs in 2025, the odds are high that they would have been ecstatic. Yet today, as the Habs bow out of the post-season at the hands of the Washington Capitals, very few are likely interested in hearing about silver linings.
Still, the silver linings and moral victories are what is important for the club going forward, rather than ruing a loss when victory was never likely to happen.
To win the series, the Canadiens would have needed just about everything for them to go perfectly. The Habs needed to overcome playoff debutant jitters in Game 1; the Capitals didn’t. The Habs needed to wean in their star rookie on their second line; the Capitals placed theirs on their fourth. The Habs needed to win the goaltending battle, and not only did Logan Thompson stand on his head, but Samuel Montembeault was lost to injury in Game 3.
Even before the opening puck drop, the Canadiens were facing an uphill path — and I don’t mean the officiating. Washington purposefully made transactions with the playoffs in mind, adding Brandon Duhaime and Matt Roy as free agents while acquiring Lars Eller, Logan Thompson, Jakob Chychrun, and Anthony Beauvillier by trade. In contrast, Montreal purposefully avoided transactions with the playoffs in mind, as they (wisely) didn’t want to commit resources in chasing what was a dream at the trade deadline. Where the Capitals sent eight draft picks to other teams, the Canadiens acquired two for themselves.
Both teams did what was logical for them, but these differences in roster construction philosophy showed during the series. Every one of the aforementioned additions played key roles for Washington in the series, while the Canadiens found themselves choosing between four rookies and a sophomore — Jakub Dobeš, Ivan Demidov, Arber Xhekaj, Jayden Struble, and Oliver Kapanen — to bolster their ranks and fill roster holes.
Given all this, the Canadiens did exceptionally well to make every game competitive. More importantly, they were led by their core players, rather than the veterans who have been shouldering the load throughout the rebuild up to the start of this season. Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson, and Brendan Gallagher showed their best sides, but Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovský undeniably drove Montreal’s engine. Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier may have played the heaviest minutes, but Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle were unquestionably the Canadiens’ most important blue-line pairing. Montembeault excelled in his playoff debut, while Dobeš, thrown into the frying pan, proved that he was no liability.
And we haven’t even begun to see Demidov’s full power.
These silver linings are a big reason that Canadiens fans can feel aggrieved about the series. Had this been a coronation as many expected, had the Montreal youth simply been overwhelmed by their circumstances and yielded to the much-hyped Washington juggernaut, Canadiens fans would be searching for silver linings rather than lamenting missed opportunities.
Instead, the Canadiens fought. They fought hard, they fought back, and they fought until the end. They even got their elbows up a bit: the final hit tally was 184-160 in favour of Montreal.
In fighting, they’ve shown that they are ready to take the next step. The playoffs should now be an expectation, rather than a pleasant surprise.
