Capitals 'extremely motivated' to finish job in Eastern 1st Round against Canadiens

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Washington Capitals have loftier goals than the step they'd take with one more win against the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference First Round.

It would still be a significant one, though.

With a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series ahead of hosting Game 5 at Capital One Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, ESPN, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC), Washington is one victory away from winning a Stanley Cup Playoff series for the first time since defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.

The Capitals have qualified for the playoffs six times in the seven seasons since then and were unable to get out of the first round in their five previous trips. In fact, they haven't even had a chance to clinch a series since a 4-3 double-overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of the 2019 first round.

"We're focused on one game," forward Tom Wilson said Tuesday. "We've got a very narrow focus right now. We're not looking years back, last year's group, two years, five years, whatever. We want to keep this machine rolling in here. We want to keep these guys dialed in. You always want to win on home ice. You always want to win every game. We'll be extremely motivated."

The Capitals understand the Canadiens will also be motivated, though, to force a Game 6 in Montreal on Friday and extend their season. Montreal battled until its final regular-season game to clinch the second wild card in the East and has pushed Washington in this series too.

Each of the Capitals' wins were one-goal games, excluding empty-net goals: a 3-2 overtime win in Game 1, a 3-1 victory in Game 2 and a 5-2 win in Game 4 on Sunday.

"You are going to get their best punch tomorrow night," Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. "The killer instinct part of it is, for me, our team and our individual players understanding that we need one more level to get to as a team and as an individual player. We're going to need a little bit more than you showed in Game 4, a little bit more than you showed in Game 3. Even the first two games at home.

"We need a little bit more to push this team out of the fight."

Montreal will try to repeat its first-round comeback from a 3-1 series deficit against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021, which propelled it on a run to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games. The Canadiens have six players remaining from that team -- forwards Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Joel Armia.

The Capitals have five players left from their 2019 team that allowed a 3-2 series lead to slip away against the Hurricanes -- Wilson and fellow forwards Alex Ovechkin, Lars Eller and Nic Dowd, and defenseman John Carlson. Washington has retooled its roster on the fly the past few seasons, including an aggressive 2024 offseason in which it added seven players after being swept in four games by the New York Rangers in the first round last season: forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh, defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy, and goalie Logan Thompson.

With those additions and the continued emergence of young players such as forwards Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas (each 24), the Capitals (51-22-9) jumped from being the second wild card in the East last season to the top seed in the conference.

The first step toward backing up their regular-season success would be advancing past the pesky Canadiens (40-31-11).

"You put yourself into a position to have success, and then when you have an opportunity to end a series or close the door, you have to take advantage of that," Dowd said. "You play all year for home ice and to put yourself in a good situation, and we've done that. But that job's not done and we still have a lot of work to do. It's going to be a really good game tomorrow."

Washington could get a boost with the potential return of Protas, a 30-goal scorer during the regular season who hasn't played since April 4 because of a skate cut on his left foot. The Capitals also will have the support of their fans, who haven't seen them clinch a playoff series at home since a 2-1 victory against the New York Islanders in Game 7 of the 2015 first round.

"Obviously you know that their season's on the line, and there's no quit from that team over there," Thompson said. "And with the guys in that room and with that coach (Martin St. Louis), we know they're going to come out real hard and we know they're going to be playing for their lives. So we've got to match their energy. Hopefully our crowd is nice and loud tomorrow, and we can build off that."