One of the advantages the Capitals seemed to have on paper coming into their first-round matchup with the Canadiens was a higher level of physicality. The Caps are undoubtedly a bigger team – one of the biggest in the league, in fact, with an average height of roughly 6’2″ (third-tallest) and weight of 202.3 lbs (sixth-heaviest) compared to Montreal’s average of about 6’0″ and 199.9 (31st and 12th, respectively). They play a hard, heavy game that differs greatly from the way Montreal usually likes to play.
The question coming in was whether the Caps would use their physicality and establish the checking game early on…a question which was very quickly answered, as the first line stepped on the ice and immediately began laying the body on the Canadiens:
Despite losing the opening draw, the Caps started throwing hits almost immediately, regaining possession that led to a great scoring chance by Connor McMichael.
All told, the Caps put up 42 hits to Montreal’s 33, Alex Ovechkin leading the way (as he so often does) with seven on the night followed by five each for Lars Eller and Brandon Duhaime, and four apiece for Taylor Raddysh and Anthony Beauvillier. And while higher hit totals aren’t always a good thing – often they’re an indicator that you don’t have the puck and are chasing the other team – that wasn’t really what was happening in Game 1.
The team’s strategy seemed to be threefold: 1) establish an overall physical presence and wear down Montreal; 2) make Habs players keep their head on a swivel and make plays perhaps more quickly than they’d like and 3) pressure the Montreal defense where they’re most likely to have the puck, i.e. the Caps’ offensive zone.
Consider that the target of a significant chunk of those hits, more than half, were aimed at the Montreal blueline:
Of the Capitals' 42 hits in Game 1 vs. Montreal, 27 were delivered on defensemen, including eight on Alexandre Carrier in his 22:27 in ice time. Kaiden Guhle and Jayden Struble each were hit five times. David Savard (4), Lane Hutson (3), Mike Matheson (2)
— Tom Gulitti (@tomgulittinhl.bsky.social) April 23, 2025 at 2:03 PM
As reference, Alexandre Carrier is the second-smallest of the Habs’ blueliners and therefore probably an easy target to pressure with checks; Hutson, being the smallest, is also likely the most slippery and hardest to hit (although he did get nabbed for a hat trick of hits in his own right), but none of them are particularly hulking.
By targeting the defense, the Caps are likely hoping to create turnovers as close to the Habs’ net as possible, either to get a scoring chance or simply set up their forecheck and cycle game in the offensive zone.
For most of Game 1, that seemed to work pretty well – but this is also the kind of play that is as much about the long game as it is the standalone game, and it’s something we can probably expect to see throughout this series as they look to punish the Habs physically and wear them down.