The Most Wonderful (And Mysterious) Time Of The Year – Tonight in Washington, on the third night of the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, the Caps and the Montreal Canadiens will immerse themselves into the postseason waters; there’s no toe-dipping at this time of year. But there are plenty of secrets and mysteries as far as lineups, injuries and schemes are concerned.
Right off the top, we don’t yet know the identity of Washington’s starting goaltender for tonight’s Game 1.
“Seven o’clock, is that puck drop?” asks Caps coach Spencer Carbery coyly. “When do they do warm-up, 5:20? Er, sorry, yeah, 6:30. You’ll find out then.”
This might be the first time in his two seasons on the job that Carbery has not been willing to divulge the name of his starting goaltender on the day of the game, and it could be related to Logan Thompson needing to be medically cleared before returning from an upper body injury sustained in an April 2 game in Carolina.
If you’re in the building around 6:30 – give or take – you’ll learn the netminder’s identity simultaneously with the rest of us.
And since the clock has struck April/playoffs, it may also be challenging to discern when/whether ailing players such as defenseman Martin Fehervary, forward Aliaksei Protas and Thompson might rejoin the lineup.
Carbery put the word on the street late last week, but here’s a reminder, in case you missed it:
“I’ll just preface injuries with this: we’ve got guys working through some things, some guys skating, [or] not skating. And for me to go into, ‘This guy is 80 percent, this guy has a chance to play, this guy doesn’t,’ I’m just going to leave it as we’ve got a bunch of guys working through some things, progressing, potentially playing on Monday, potentially not.
“And once we get going in the series, I can give you more updates as guys are obviously warming up and in the lineup, or not.”
Step Right Up – Last April, Caps defenseman Alex Alexeyev found himself playing in all four of Washington’s postseason games in the Caps’ short-lived playoff foray, this after appearing in just 39 regular season games with the Caps in the 2023-24 regular season.
Fast forward a year, and Alexeyev appears poised to step in – at least at the outset of the playoffs – for Fehervary, who is sidelined with an undisclosed ailment. Fehervary played each of Washington’s first 81 games this season, but he couldn’t answer the bell for Thursday’s season finale in Pittsburgh. He hasn’t been on the ice with his teammates since.
As Alexeyev prepares to step into Washington’s Game 1 lineup for a second straight year, he is coming off a season in which his deployment was much more sporadic than last year. Because Washington’s top six defensemen were so healthy and so effective over such a large swath of the season – the top six stayed together for a remarkable 60 straight games from Nov. 9- Alexeyev was limited to a mere eight regular season games in ’24-25.
In early March, he was dispatched to AHL Hershey on a conditioning stint, just to get him some game reps; the 25-year-old first-rounder from the 2018 NHL Draft saw no NHL game action at all between Nov. 8 and April 12. Alexeyev did skate in three of Washington’s last four regular season games, averaging just over 20 minutes a night in the process.
During Alexeyev’s time as a healthy scratch, he worked like a fiend on and off the ice so he would be ready for a situation such as this one, staying out late with skills coach Kenny McCudden, and the fruits of that labor were evident in seeing him in the ice for those three late-season games.
“It’s been great for sure, it helps my confidence,” says Alexeyev of seeing some late season game action. “To lift it up a little bit and just feel the game, in all aspects and different situations, it’s really good for me.”
Alexeyev will be paired with Trevor van Riemsdyk tonight. The two were Washington’s sixth most frequently deployed pair last season, and the duo has played about 70 minutes together at 5-on-5 this season, including about 23 minutes during the three April games in which Alexeyev appeared.
During those 60 games in which the top six remained in the lineup together, the six blueliners were mixed and matched at various times of games, based on game situations and other factors, so even with Fehervary missing from the mix, the others are all familiar with playing alongside one another.
“It’s funny how that works,” says van Riemsdyk. “Last year, it was a similar story and Al stepped in. And if last year is any sign of what he is capable of, he’ll be fine. He played awesome last year for us when he had to step in, after not playing much during the season, so that’ll be huge for us.
“And I think the pairings and being adaptable, we’ve had the same six guys, but we’ve all played with different guys, whether it’s certain situations in games or not, so there is familiarity there. It’s a great team we’re playing against, with high-end skill. And when we’re at our best, we’re breaking the puck out a lot and playing a lot in the [offensive] zone. And obviously, the best way to defend is by playing in the offensive zone.”
Keeping the puck out of the hands of Montreal’s skilled forwards – and in particular the hands of its top line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky – is going to be a primary objective for the Caps in this series, and one of the basic ingredients of that recipe is going to involve clean and efficient breakouts from their own end of the ice.
“Bringing in Matty Roy and [Jakob Chychrun] has made a difference,” notes van Riemsdyk. “Obviously, Chych has the offensive numbers, but I think that’s because he breaks the puck out so well. He can do it on his own, he can make passes, he can do it all. And when you’re spending that much extra time in the [offensive] zone, you’re bound to put up those numbers.”
Dear Landlord – When Ryan Leonard signed his entry level contract and joined the Capitals from the campus of Boston College earlier this month, Caps center P-L Dubois generously opened his home to the rookie forward, offering the 20-year-old winger a place to stay.
As a guy who entered the NHL as a 19-year-old himself – with Columbus in 2017-18 – Dubois has lived what Leonard is going through.
“My first year, I lived with [then-Jackets defenseman] David Savard,” Dubois told us recently. “And that was probably one of the best decisions I made in my career.
“And then one of the worst decisions I made my career, and I don't have many regrets, but one of them is I left my second year, and I didn't live at his place again. I got my own apartment; I wanted to live on my own. But in hindsight now, when I look back, I should have stayed another year.
“Just the friendships that you create, for a young guy especially, are so important. It’s your first time living by yourself, or you’re living completely away from everything. And to come back after games, on the day off, to wake up and have somebody to talk to, have somebody to hang out with, not be alone all the time, or have to go somewhere all the time to hang out with, to come back from road trips and have some food in your fridge, all those little things.
“You're free in your mind on a day off, then you go to the game and you're having fun, and you don’t have to think about all that stuff. There's a lot to think about when you first come into the League. I know [Leonard] has got a lot on his plate with games, practices, video, all that kind of stuff, and that's part of the business.
“But my fiancée and I thought if we could take something off his plate – like where he has to live and what he has to eat for dinner and all that stuff – it can help him out a lot. He's a very polite, very nice, respectful kid. So it makes it makes life a lot easier.”
Savard, a veteran of 870 NHL games who broke in with the Jackets in 2011-12, announced last week that he would be wrapping up an excellent 14-year career in the League whenever Montreal’s season has concluded. Savard, who was a Stanley Cup champion with Tampa Bay in 2021, spent the first decade of his NHL career in Columbus, where his 597 career games as a Blue Jacket rank fifth in franchise history.
Today, we asked Dubois for his thoughts on the news of Savard’s impending retirement from the game.
“David to me, is much more than a friend and much more than a teammate to me,” says Dubois. “He is like a brother to me; I lived with him my first year. And he was more than just a guy who helped me out my first year, when I had rough patches, and when I was maybe homesick; it was my first time leaving home like that, in my case.
“He was always the first one to give me an ear or to give me some advice. His wife, same thing. His kids, same thing. She is like a sister to me and the kids are like my niece and nephew.
“The fact that he is retiring, it will be weird not to play against him anymore. But maybe I’ll have more opportunities to see him; they talked about coming to DC, so maybe they’ll come to see us.
“It’s a chapter that’s closing for him, but a new chapter is going to start. And I think he is going to stay around the game.”
In The Nets – Midway through the ’23-24 season, Charlie Lindgren took control of the Caps crease and saw the lion’s share of the netminding duty from mid-January to season’s end, beginning with a weekend home-and-home set with the Rangers. From that weekend to now, Lindgren is 38-27-7 with five shutouts, a 2.78 GAA and a .900 save pct. in 74 appearances (72 starts). He is tied – with Montreal’s Sam Montembeault – for 15th in the NHL in wins over that span.
For most of this season, Lindgren split the netminding chores with Thompson, who went 31-6-6 before being sidelined with an upper body injury sustained in the first period of an April 2 game in Carolina. Thompson began working his way back from the injury about a week ago, and he has participated in a handful of morning skates and practices with the team within the last week.
Over that same stretch from the middle of January, 2024 to the end of the 2024-25 regular season, Thompson fashioned a 43-12-8 record in 64 appearances (61 starts), with three shutouts, a 2.53 GAA and a .911 save pct. Thompson’s win total ranks seventh in the NHL over that span, and each of the six netminders ahead of him on that list have made at least 19 more starts across that span.
Washington is the only team in the NHL with a 30-game winner (Thompson) and a 20-game winner (Lindgren) in goal this season, and it’s the only team with two goalies in the League’s top 15 in victories over the last 15 months. The Caps have two strong options in net when both are at peak health, and we’ll learn the identity of tonight’s starter when he leads the team on the ice for warmups.
Lifetime against the Canadiens in the regular season, Lindgren – who started his pro career as an undrafted free agent in the Montreal organization – is 3-1-0 in five appearances (all starts), with a 2.51 GAA and an .889 save pct. He has yielded nine goals on 89 shots in his five appearances against his former employer.
Over the course of his own career against Montreal, Thompson is 1-0-1 in two appearances (one start) with a 3.04 GAA and an .889 save pct. He has yielded five goals on 45 shots in those two appearances.
Both Lindgren (0-4-0) and Thompson (2-2-0) carry four games worth of Stanley Cup playoff experience into the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis has not yet confirmed his starting goaltender for tonight's Game 1, either. But Montembeault had nine of Montreal's last 11 regular season starting assignments, so he is more likely that not to be in the crease for the Habs tonight.
Montembeault’s numbers are similar to those of Lindgren over that same span. Since mid-January of last year, the Montreal netminder is 38-33-13 with four shutouts, a 2.95 GAA and a .901 save pct. in 84 appearances (82 starts).
Montembeault ended the regular season on a roll; he was 6-1-1 with a 2.11 GAA and a .922 save pct. in his last eight appearances. Lifetime against Washington in the regular season, Montembeault is 2-3-0 in six appearances (five starts) with a 3.49 GAA and an .893 save pct.
Tonight in Washington, Montembeault – a veteran of six NHL seasons – will likely make his first-ever Stanley Cup playoffs appearance.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Capitals and the Canadiens might look in Monday night’s series opener:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
3-Roy, 38-Sandin
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
25-Bear
33-Stevenson
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
21-Protas (lower body)
42-Fehervary (undisclosed)
48-Thompson (upper body)
77-Oshie (back)
MONTREAL
Forwards
13-Caufield, 14-Suzuki, 20-Slafkovsky
11-Gallagher, 28-Dvorak, 17-Anderson
92-Laine, 15-Newhook, 93-Demidov
51-Heineman, 71-Evans, 40-Armia
Defensemen
8-Matheson, 45-Carrier
21-Guhle, 48-Hutson
47-Struble, 58-Savard
Goaltenders
35-Montembeault
75-Dobes
Extras
55-Pezzetta
72-Xhekaj
89-Roy
91-Kapanen
Out/Injured
31-Price (lower body)
77-Dach (lower body)
