1. Injury Updates
After an 82-game regular-season, no one’s at 100 percent. But who’s just hurting and who’s injured, and when will the latter group rejoin the former? We’ll go player-by-player:
Logan Thompson: Looks to be on track to be available for Game 1 after practicing in full on Saturday then again Sunday. Now, does that mean Spencer Carbery will give him the start after nearly three weeks sidelined and a 6-3-1/.876/3.20 run-up to that point?
Carbery may be playing coy, but Thompson is his number one goalie and likely a Vezina finalist, so there’s no need to overthink this one – the cage is his (and it’s not like Charlie Lindgren has been lights-out in LT’s absence). The fact that he was the first goalie off the ice this morning certainly seems to confirm that…
Logan Thompson is the first goalie off the ice after the Capitals optional morning skate. We will see if coach Spencer Carbery will say if he’s starting Game 1 vs. the Canadiens tonight.
— Tom Gulitti (@tomgulittinhl.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Aliaksei Protas: Skated on Sunday for the first time since sustaining the cut on his foot that has kept him out since April 4 and then again briefly this morning, which is certainly positive news, but temper expectations accordingly on whether he’ll be available early in this series (if at all).
Aliaksei Protas (skate cut on foot) skating more freely and with more speed today than yesterday.
— Tom Gulitti (@tomgulittinhl.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 10:02 AM
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Protas skated for about 15 minutes, then was called off the ice by head trainer Jason Serbus
— Bailey Johnson (@baileyannej.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 10:13 AM
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Martin Fehervary: Injured (lower body?) against the Isles in the season’s penultimate game, and while he came back to finish that one, he hasn’t skated since. Ethan Bear was called up from Hershey, which may or may not be related.
Other skaters who missed some time at the end of the regular season – John Carlson and Matt Roy, most notably – appear to be good to go (or as good as can reasonably be expected, given the miles on those tires). All things considered, it could be worse,.
2. Crossing the Laine?
There was a time when Patrik Laine, like Steven Stamkos before him, Auston Matthews since, and any number of other snipers along the way, was going to take the goal-scoring baton from Alex Ovechkin and run with it. Thing is, Ovechkin wasn’t about to let go (since that article was written prior to the 2018-19 season, Laine has scored 144 goals; Ovechkin has potted 290 and sits 673 career goals ahead of Laine… oops). Still, if you’re farming for narratives in this season, asking what one formerly and very briefly prolific goal-scorer thinks of the Platonic ideal of such a player seems an easy one. But Laine wasn’t taking the bait:
Look, if you take that as Laine disrespecting Ovechkin, you’re not going to last this series much less a longer playoff run. Perhaps there are more diplomatic ways of getting his point across (“He’s obviously a great player, but we need to focus on the task at hand,” etc.), but Laine’s not here to pump Ovi’s tires – he’s here to be “essentially useless at 5v5.”
Besides, this guy might be a better target for your animus:
Russian kids in the playoffs these days… sometimes they need to be taught to respect their elder countrymen.
3. Picks
Let’s just jump right in. First up, NHL.com, where 14 of 16 writers picked the Caps to advance (and a couple even have the Caps making it to the Final).
Next up, ESPN:
Canadian outlet Sportsnet?
Daily Faceoff has seven writers picking the Caps and three picking Montreal. The Athletic?
That brings the total to 56 of 76 (74%) picking the Caps, which makes sense – the Caps are massive favorites. But we’re a few hours away from starting to find out just how warranted that is. Buckle up.