Canadiens looking to turn back the clock in playoff series against Capitals

The Montreal Canadiens have ended a three-season drought by clinching the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

The Canadiens’ reward for earning their way back into the playoffs is a first-round matchup against the East’s top seed, the Washington Capitals.

These teams have only ever faced off in the playoffs once before, back in 2010. That season, the Capitals came into the matchup as the Presidents’ Trophy winners and top overall seed in the league, while the Canadiens qualified for the playoff by one point after edging out the New York Rangers for the eighth and final spot.

Montreal would lose three out of the first four games in the series, before battling back with three consecutive victories to take down Washington in seven games behind stellar play from goalie Jaroslav Halak.

It marked the first time in NHL history that an eighth-seeded team had been able to complete a 3-1 comeback to defeat a No. 1 seed. The Canadiens will look to repeat some recent history this time around.

Montreal comes into this series as a heavy underdog, with FanDuel Sportsbook setting their odds of a series win at +210, translating to an implied probability of just over 32 per cent.

Regardless, the Canadiens have been one of the hottest teams in the league since the 4 Nations Face-Off, holding the fifth-best record in the league at 15-5-6 to surge up the wild-card standings and now, into the playoffs.

“We've had some hard days,” said captain Nick Suzuki after Montreal clinched a playoff berth. “For our group to come together like this season and put together this effort to make the playoffs, when a lot of people doubted us, I'm very impressed and proud of the guys in the room."

Montreal’s young core of Suzuki and Cole Caufield have taken a step this season, with the former leading the team with 89 points while the latter set a new career-high with 37 goals, good for 13th among all skaters in the NHL.

Rookie Lane Hutson is pacing all first-year players in assists (60), points (66), power-play points (26), blocked shots (123), takeaways (56) and time on ice per game (22:44).

On Wednesday, the blueliner tied an NHL record with his 60th assist, tying Larry Murphy for the most helpers all-time in a rookie season.

The Habs were injected with even more young talent last week when Ivan Demidov came over from SKA Saint Petersburg. The Russian winger scored a goal and an assist in his highly anticipated NHL debut on Monday, showcasing his talent amidst a chorus of cheers from the Canadiens faithful.

Demidov, the fifth-overall pick in last year’s NHL draft, registered 19 goals and 49 points as a 19-year-old in the KHL this season and was ranked as the No. 1 prospect on TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button’s Top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects list back in February.

Montreal holds a record of 1-2-0 against Washington this season, with the Canadiens winning their most recent meeting, a 3-2 win on Jan. 10, thanks to Suzuki’s overtime winner.

Suzuki has registered two goals and two assists against the Capitals this year, while Caufield managed to score in all three meetings, netting three goals and five points.

The Capitals have enjoyed a season that saw the team come out of the gate hot with an 8-2-0 record, before remaining at the top of the conference for much of the year.

Washington finished the regular season with 111 points, five back from the Winnipeg Jets for the Presidents’ Trophy.

Spencer Carbery’s team has scored the second-most goals in the NHL this season, trailing the high-powered Tampa Bay Lightning by eight markers for the league lead.

Much of the Capitals’ season had been consumed by Alex Ovechkin and the “Gr8 Chase” of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal scoring record of 894, but with that mark now belonging to the 20-year veteran, their focus shifts to a first-round matchup against the Canadiens.

Washington has failed to make it out of the first round in their past five attempts, and did not qualify for the playoffs 2022-23, marking a six-year drought of reaching the second round. The last time they won a playoff series was the year that Ovechkin raised his first Stanley Cup after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in the final.

Dylan Strome has averaged a point per game this season, setting a new career high with 81 heading into Washington’s last game of the year, while Ovechkin is set to lead the team in goals for the 14th consecutive year with 43 markers.

Goaltender Logan Thompson has been a revelation on the back end for Washington, posting a 31-6-6 record, 2.49 goals-against average, and a .910 save percentage, but has been out since April 2 with an upper-body injury.

He has since resumed skating but his status for Game 1, and the series as a whole, is currently up in the air.

Charlie Lindgren (2.73 goals-against average and .896 save-percentage) figures to start if Thompson remains out, with Hunter Shepard assuming the role of backup.

The Capitals hold home-ice advantage through the Eastern Conference final and take to the ice looking for their first playoff victory since the 2021-22 season.