Canadiens hope to get momentum, stay alive in Game 5 against Capitals

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Alex Newhook knows what it's like to lift the Stanley Cup. The Montreal Canadiens forward hoisted hockey's grandest prize with the 2022 Colorado Avalanche, which in a hockey life is forever ago.

On Tuesday, Newhook considered that championship and the challenge the Canadiens now face, down 3-1 entering Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at the Washington Capitals on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, MNMT, ESPN, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC).

"The biggest takeaway (from 2022) is that it's not supposed to be easy," Newhook said. "You're not supposed to go in and sweep a series or not expect to go deep with a team right off the bat.

"Just have confidence in ourselves. You need to have everyone rolling in this kind of situation, have everyone going. If you have a full team effort night in and night out, you give yourself a chance to stay long."

In fact, the 2021-22 Avalanche did sweep their first round, against the Nashville Predators. They needed six games against the St. Louis Blues before sweeping the Edmonton Oilers, in the Western Conference Final, finally going on to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the Cup Final.

But Colorado entered the playoffs as the Central Division champion and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. The Canadiens, on the other hand, were the last team into the playoffs in the Eastern Conference and their first dance partner is the Capitals, the Metropolitan Division champions who are the No. 1 seed in the East.

The operative word among the Canadiens on the eve of Game 5 against Washington was "momentum" -- having it, losing it, regaining it.

"It's an important part of the playoffs," said Newhook, one of 13 Canadiens with postseason experience. "It's meant to have seven games for a reason. We're going in to try to build some momentum and get some coming back home for a Game 6 (that would be Friday).

"(The Capitals) probably got some last game heading home (with a 5-2 Game 4 win on Sunday) but it switches quick, it flips quick, it's on us to go in and get that back. That's our mindset going in. We just need to play a desperate game and bring it home."

Jake Evans, who centers Newhook and rookie Ivan Demidov on the Canadiens' third line, has played in 17 Stanley Cup Playoff games during his career, 13 of them during Montreal's run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final against the Lightning. That year, the team's leadership core included seasoned veterans Carey Price, Shea Weber and Corey Perry.

"The biggest message we got from them is that you never know when you're going to get another opportunity to be in the playoffs, and they were right," Evans said. "For us, it's telling these (young, playoff-rookie) guys about our experience, telling them what worked and how we got back into it."

Canadiens fans won't soon forget the team being down 3-1 to the North Division-champion Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, Montreal then winning three straight to advance.

"But it's not putting too much pressure on the situation, letting the guys play," Evans said. "These younger guys have been learning throughout the games and doing a great job.

"It feels like we've been playing win-or-go-home hockey the last two months, honestly. It's worked out pretty well for us. At the end of the day, if you told us we'd be in this situation in certain points of the year, we'd be pretty happy about it. We're excited for that challenge, we've got a lot of belief in this group."

Forward Cole Caufield had no playoff experience before the 2021 postseason. He played 20 postseason games that year, getting 12 points (four goals, eight assists). Against the Capitals, he has a team-leading three goals, with one assist, through four games, his four points one fewer than the five (all assists) of rookie defenseman Lane Hutson.

Caufield said Tuesday that he has no real recollection of the Canadiens going into Toronto down 3-1 in 2021 for the first of three elimination games but suggested there might be a bit of a parallel now.

"It's the same situation," he said. "They're supposed to win, we're supposed to be the underdog, I guess. We just keep fighting. We're not really satisfied with where we're at, we wish we were going into (Game 5) 2-2 but that's just hockey. We just have to focus on winning one game at a time. We can't focus on getting three back all at once. Make it as simple as we can.

"Only a certain amount of teams make it and we're still lucky enough to play right now. A lot of work went into that in an 82-game season. I don't think there are flukes at all. It's a long season and (it took) a lot of work to get where we're at. We're still in this thing."

Coach Martin St. Louis said momentum is the key word now, which "would come with a win. All the actions during the game that help you keep the momentum and steal it back when you lose."

Learning to win in the playoffs, he added, "comes at a steeper price, the physicality. There's got to be some kind of courage, probably a little more… collective courage in the playoffs. But you don't get to live that without going through it and that's what we're doing."

For Newhook, it's all about 60 minutes of hockey, and overtime if necessary.

"You try to bring the same mindset," he said of the Canadiens' late push to qualify for the playoffs. "You try to take some comparisons to what we've been doing recently.

"It feels like our back's been against the wall a lot this season. We've had to come back and win some pretty important games down the stretch. We've got to bring the same mentality, draw back to how we've approached those type of games, with a little extra intensity added, to win one game on the road."