Capitals First Round Playoff Matchup Preview: Montreal Canadiens

The Capitals will be taking on the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. After going 51-22-9 on the season, the Capitals hold the first seed in the Eastern Conference and home ice advantage all the way through the Eastern Conference Finals if they were to advance that far. This preview will look to see how the Capitals matchup against Montreal including some key points to be made.

Starting Goalie Situation

While the Capitals are sitting pretty with options of whomever is in front of the net, there are certainly preferences. Logan Thompson had a Vezina trophy like campaign going 31-6-6, .910% save percentage, and a 2.49 goals against average, but is dealing with an injury. Lindgren is also a solid option, but realistically the best is Thompson. Ironically, Lindgren was okay against Montreal this season as in two games he had a .875 save percentage and a 2.19 goals against average, but Thompson went 1-0-1 with a .889 save percentage and 3.04 goals against average.

Montreal's Momentum

The Canadiens were looking like they were about to go into another rebuild in December, but since then they have been the hottest team in the league and even earned the eight seed in the playoffs. What looked unrealistic, is now possible as Montreal has a great chance at upsetting Washington in the first round. The Capitals will have to find a way to slow them down especially with how sluggish their form has looked since the end of March. But it's a brand new season and sometimes momentum like Montreal has means nothing in the playoffs.

Checking In On The Depth

With injuries to key players including Aliaksei Protas, the depth needs to be a factor in this one. Losing Protas is huge as he was a major contributor, so there needs to be someone who can step up and fill in what he was able to provide. The hope is also that Thompson can overcome his injury that he suffered earlier this month. That being said, the depth was a huge factor all season long as it helped earn the number one seed. The scoring depth was key this season too and if they have enough fire power to go against Montreal's goalie Sam Montembault, filling in for Carey Price, then it will be hard for Montreal to prevent them from getting chances and scoring goals.

Hold Down Key Players For Montreal

This may seem like a fairly obvious point to make, but when looking deeper into the numbers it's more crucial than one would think. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, and Juraj Slafkovsky are outstanding players, but outside of that, no one else on the roster has more than 38 points recorded this season. Now the rookie sensation Ivan Demidov should help with their scoring depth, but will that be enough? If the defense of the Capitals can hold down the key players for Montreal or limit their chances, it will look very good for them. While Montreal has a lot of talented players such as Brendan Gallagher, Patrik Laine, Christian Dvorak, Josh Anderson, and Oliver Kapanen, they haven't produced as much as the others mentioned. It is a new season so that could all mean nothing at the end of it.

The Capitals Form Going Into The Playoffs

While this probably should not be a concern, it's definitely a talking point. It has seemed like the Capitals have just been cruising along in the last month going 4-5, but realistically they had already clinched a playoff spot and eventually the number one seed as it seemed like it was all but assured to happen in the last month. They didn't need play all that hard as it was just basically a tune up and to stay in shape before the playoffs began.

Prediction: Caps in five