'Best team in the league': Canadiens' St. Louis throws pressure on favoured Capitals

Martin St. Louis is putting the pressure on Washington.

While the Montreal Canadiens clawed their way into the playoffs, the Capitals flirted with first place in the NHL all season.

So who should be feeling the heat when the two teams meet in the first round of their NHL playoff series Monday night in the U.S capital?

"I feel it's the best team in the league," the Canadiens head coach said for a third time about his opponent. "You do the math."

Led by captain Alex Ovechkin, who eclipsed Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record April 6, Washington topped the Eastern Conference with 111 points this season.

Montreal, meanwhile, clinched the final wild card with 91 points — a number that wouldn't have qualified in the West — and a minus-20 goal-differential.

But playing the underdog is nothing new for the Canadiens. They've already defied the odds just to reach the post-season.

A rebuilding team, Montreal missed the playoffs in three consecutive years before this season's surprise run.

Late-April hockey looked out of the question when the Canadiens ranked 31st on Dec. 1, and again when St. Louis's squad sputtered before February's 4 Nations tournament break.

Captain Nick Suzuki and rookie sensation Lane Hutson then played key roles in a complete team effort to climb the standings, and Montreal rallied with a 15-5-6 in the final quarter of the season.

"They're the one seed and we just snuck in, but I think we don't really feel like we're an eight seed," Suzuki said. "We've been playing really good hockey. We're a really confident group."

The Canadiens — with an average age of 25.8 years — are by far the youngest team to make the playoffs. But Suzuki believes they've gained plenty of experience in pressure-packed games down the stretch.

"We've been playing playoff hockey," he said. "We've been fighting for our lives to get in this position for the last few weeks now.

"We're looking forward to the challenge, so I think we can live up to it."

WATCH l Playoff buzz abound in Montreal:

After a dramatic and sometimes nail-biting final few games of the season, Montreal Canadiens fans can now get excited for the playoffs, joining Montreal Victoire fans and marking the first time two professional hockey teams in the city have qualified for the playoffs at the same time.

The post-season berth marks the return of playoff hockey to one of the sport's most passionate markets.

The Canadiens are back in the playoffs for the first time since reaching the Stanley Cup final in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season. And fans will have the chance to fill the Bell Centre for a playoff game for the first time since 2017.

A season ago, the Capitals were in the Canadiens' shoes, squeaking in to the playoffs despite their negative goal-differential.

Now they're the top seed and heavily favoured to advance, but head coach Spencer Carbery reminded reporters they've exceeded pre-season expectations all season.

"I'm not too concerned with betting odds," he said. "No one had us in this spot before the season started, and just because we've had a great regular season and we're sitting as the first seed in the East, I can promise you this, there's no overconfidence.

"Not part of our DNA."

While Montreal thrived after the 4 Nations break, Washington lost some steam with a 15-11-1 record, including eight losses in their last 12 regular-season games. That final stretch includes the end of Ovechkin's record chase and low stakes because they'd secured a playoff berth.

But the Capitals are also a little banged up.

Logan Thompson hasn't played since sustaining an upper-body injury against the Carolina Hurricanes on April 2, but the netminder practised in full capacity on Saturday and Sunday. Carbery said he'll name his Game 1 starter Monday.

Meanwhile, forward Aliaksei Protas, who broke out this season with 30 goals and 36 assists in 76 games, skated Sunday after injuring his foot April 4. Depth defenceman Martin Fehervary (lower body) has been ruled out for Game 1.

When the two teams last met in the playoffs in 2010, eighth-seeded Montreal upset the Presidents' Trophy winners in seven games.

The Canadiens will try to make history repeat itself 15 years later.

"We're just never out of it," defenceman Kaiden Guhle said. "People have been doubting us all year, and we're here. Seems like when the odds are stacked against us, it's when we're at our best.

"We said, `Why not us, why not now?' for playoffs. But why not us, why not now to win?"

The Canadiens lost two of their three regular-season matchups against the Capitals, including a 6-3 defeat Oct. 31. Montreal won 3-2 in overtime at Washington on Jan. 10.

The Capitals were famously "Halak'd" in 2010, when Canadiens netminder Jaroslav Halak famously stole the series with a .939 save percentage.

Ivan Demidov: The 19-year-old Russian arrived in Montreal from the KHL's SKA Saint Petersburg a little more than a week ago. Selected fifth overall in the 2024 draft, the talented winger played his first two NHL games for the Canadiens at the end of the regular season and dazzled with a goal and an assist in his debut. He could be a wild card for Montreal.

Connor McMichael: With Protas potentially out, the Capitals will look for McMichael to support Ovechkin and top centre Dylan Strome with some secondary scoring. The 24-year-old McMichael had a career-best 26 goals and 31 assists in 82 games this season.