After four nights of watching a dozen teams meet their own first-round fate, Caps ready to roll vs. Canes
As they get set to head into their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Carolina Hurricanes, the Capitals find themselves in some unfamiliar territory.
Last Wednesday night at Capital One Arena, the Caps concluded their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens, downing the Habs and winning the game and the series by an identical 4-1 count. In each of the four nights since, the Caps have been in the unique and enviable position of watching a dozen other NHL squads vying to achieve what they’ve already achieved, a first-round victory and the knowledge of their second-round foe.
Only five times in franchise history have the Caps been able to finish off a foe in as few as five games in a playoff series, and Washington has never authored a sweep of a best-of-seven set. It’s not often the Caps are in a position of watching other teams trying to get through a playoff round they’ve already successfully navigated; the last time it happened prior to last week was in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, with no other hockey for them to watch after they’d vanquished Vegas.
Most Caps we spoke with admitted to watching a lot of hockey over these last four nights. (Because why wouldn’t you?) Some players admitted to going to bed before overtime of some of the games, and some said they didn’t watch much at all because of the infliction of stress that such viewing would bring on. Some also admitted to being fine with starting this second-round set with Carolina days ago, but all admitted there are no wrong answers. Getting some rest in ahead of what promises to be a grueling series against a divisional foe is never a bad thing, especially when that foe also finished its own first-round series in five games.
“It’s nice to have it done,” says Caps center Dylan Strome. “It’s a little longer of a wait than I guess we’re normally used to, but I feel like rest is always good for our team. It seems like we regroup, recharge and reset, and the coaches have time to prepare us and we’re usually ready to go.”
Until Saturday, the Caps weren’t even sure of when their second-round series with Carolina would begin; their series could have started as early as Sunday, but it will get underway Tuesday night at Capital One Arena when they host the Canes in Game 1 of that second-round set.
Most Caps wanted the extra rest that accompanies the Tuesday start date, not because the first-round series was so arduous as to require additional recovery time, but because they earned those extra days of rest and recovery with their ability to quickly dispatch the Canadiens.
“For sure we earned it,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael. “You earn a few days of extra rest when you close out a series early like that.”
Not only did the Caps close out the Canadiens early, they finished the Habs in convincing enough fashion that they should be able to carry some confidence into this set against the Hurricanes. Montreal had just 31 minutes and 19 seconds worth of lead time on the scoreboard in round one, easily the least of any of the 16 teams in that round. The Caps also limited the Habs to the fewest goals against at 5-on-5 (seven) of all first-round teams.
Four of those seven goals against at 5-on-5 came in the Caps’ only ugly outing of the series, a 6-3 loss in Game 3 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. All four of those Montreal 5-on-5 goals that night came less than 10 seconds after a Washington giveaway, and even in those untoward circumstances, the Caps were all even with Montreal at 3-3, four minutes into the third period of that game. As poorly as they played in the first 40 minutes, they were in a position to win that game, too.
Washington’s top forward line of Strome, Ovechkin and Anthony Beauvillier did most of the offensive work in round one, because Caps coach Spencer Carbery put them in a position to do so. That trio of players was not on the ice for a defensive zone draw together at any point of the series until the first period of Game 5.
The counterpoint to the Strome line was P-L Dubois with Tom Wilson and McMichael, the trio that Carbery tasked to neutralize Montreal’s top unit, a job they relished and did with aplomb. Washington’s entire lineup – from top to bottom, forwards and back end – played their roles to a tee in that series.
“You take what you get; you obviously want to take care of business when you get the opportunity,” says Wilson. “It’s not always that easy; it’s easier said than done. We did a good of keeping them down once we got them down, and we pushed them out of the series.
“It was a quick series, but there was a lot of emotion early on. There was a want or a will to get rid of them as quickly as possible, and we took care of them, and we’ll move on. We know it’s going to be a really good test here. We’re happy with our effort in round one; we showed up, we competed, we battled really hard, and we proved to ourselves that we belong at this time of year, and we can make some noise. We’re going to have a really good test that probably plays like Montreal, only a little better, a little more dialed in and a little more detailed.”
Carolina is not Montreal, but the Caps should be carrying a fair amount of confidence into their series with the Canes, just based on how well they played and fared in the first round.
“I felt confident, especially that Game 4 in their building,” says Caps center Nic Dowd. “That’s where we held them to about five shots halfway through the second. And honestly, I think that’s the strength of our team. We’ve always said it all year, is if we can have all 20 guys playing the exact same way, we’re going to have success. If Dylan Strome and Dubie are playing the same way as like Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime – from a defensive standpoint – we’re going to have success. The only difference is Dubie and Stromer, when they have the opportunity to maybe make those really high-end offensive plays – as opposed to someone like myself – maybe they make those plays. So that’s obviously where we differ as players, but they don’t get those opportunities without working hard defensively, without the puck. It’s just not going to happen that way.”
Beginning in 1998-99 with the birth of the Southeast Division, the Caps and Canes were co-denizens of what was frequently a motley collection of clubs, but one that worked up a healthy dislike for one another via the overload scheduling of the time. From ’98-99 through 2013-14, the Caps and Canes saw each other at least five times a season, and they faced one another eight times every season for the first three seasons of Alex Ovechkin’s NHL career. The Metropolitan Division began in 2013-14, so this is the 25th season of the Caps and Canes competing in the same division since ’98-99, and it’s just their second playoff entanglement.
Carolina prevailed in the first postseason meeting between the two teams, ousting the Caps in the first round of the 2019 playoffs. That 2018-19 season was the first season of Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour’s highly successful tenure behind the Canes’ bench, and one in which he has imbued that team with an identity that is arguably the most deep rooted of any team in the NHL.
Every team which faces the Canes knows exactly what to expect from them.
“They’re a shot volume [team],” says Carbery. “They get everything as much as they possibly can to your net, and they’re very predictable to one another, because everybody knows exactly where the puck is going. So they go to those areas, and then what they do a really good job of is – and the argument against shot volume or shot quality is it’s a very low percentage shot [coming from] outside of the scoring area – they make it work, and why it becomes successful is because they don’t shoot one, they shoot eight.
“And so now, when they shoot 80 pucks at your net, four can easily go in, because they shot 80 of them, where if we only shoot 30, it’s harder to score. They are constantly getting people around your net, and pucks are going there, and then they get the second, and the third, and the fourth, and then the fifth. Eventually you break down, or they break teams down with those [shots], not necessarily the first one, but the fourth and fifth one. That’s where for us, we know what to expect, and we’re going to have to do a job. They know what they do well. We know what we do well. And it’s going to be a battle of who can impose their game at a higher level.”
The Canes also typically have the puck for most of the game when they’re playing at their best, and their opponents haven’t found a way to score without it. Carolina has controlled 57.1 percent of all 5-on-5 shot attempts over Brind’Amour’s seven regular seasons with the Canes, and that’s tops in the League.
It’s not close, either.
Over that seven-year span, Chicago is at the bottom with 46 percent. The distance between Carolina and second-place Florida (53.6 percent) is the greatest between any of the teams between Florida and Chicago on that list.
And while Carolina has been a top four possession team in every season of the Brind’Amour era, the Hurricanes have honed their system and have improved their already gaudy possession numbers as time has passed. They’ve been tops in the NHL – again by a significant margin – for three straight seasons now, and they’re at 59.5 percent over that span. And again, the difference between the Canes and second-place Florida (55.1 percent) is easily the greatest difference between any two teams from one through 32.
“Even watching their first round series against New Jersey,” begins McMichael, “when they have the puck, obviously it’s hard breaking it out, and they just come in waves and throw pucks to the middle and towards the net, and it’s hard to recover those sprayed pucks and get out of your own zone.
“For us, I think the big key will be just getting into their zone, and once we’re in their zone, holding onto pucks; don’t be throwing them away and wasting them and letting them transition. And I think especially in their building this year, there’s a few times where we get caught out for two- or three-minute shifts in the [defensive] zone, where they’re just going around our zone and throwing pucks [at the net]. And once they wear you down, it’s real tough. So I think the biggest thing for us is going to be getting in their zone, holding onto pucks, and just looking for the right opportunity to strike.”
Another area in which the Caps mut be diligent is even-numbered periods with the long change. During the 2024-25 regular season, the Canes were plus-23 (94-71) in the second period, one of the top middle frame goal differentials in the League.
“We’ve talked about it a lot so far,” says McMichael. “Especially in the second period, they have a lot of [defensemen] that, when it looks like we’re breaking the puck out and it might just be a soft chip into the zone there, they’ve got some [defensemen] that are really good at knocking down pucks and chucking it back up in the neutral zone and being fast in transition.
“We’ve talked a lot about not taking any pucks for granted through the neutral zone –especially in that second period – and making sure that you’re getting it down below their goal line. And for me, personally, I saw that one goal that that [Jaccob] Slavin scored where it looked like [the Devils] were going to break it out pretty clean, and all of a sudden, he knocks it down, and it’s in the back of their net. They’ve got really high-end skill back there, and guys that will make you pay if you’re not careful with those pucks.”
Carolina has successfully made its way through the first round for seven straight seasons now; that’s no small feat. The Canes knocked the Caps out in double overtime of Game 7 in 2019’s first round, ending Washington’s “back-to-back” bid the spring after it won its first Cup, and starting their streak of seven straight seasons of winning at least one series.
Carolina is battle tested; the Hurricanes will be playing their 15th playoff series in the Brind’Amour era while the Caps will be entering their seventh series over the same span. For all of Carolina’s puck possession dominance and their seven-season run of first-round perfection, the Canes are still seeking their first trip to the Cup Final since their lone Cup championship season of 2005-06. They’ve reached the Eastern Conference final three times since then – including twice in the Brind’Amour era – but they’ve come up short of their ultimate goal, so they’re clearly not invincible.
For Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk – who was a member of that 2018-19 Carolina team that bumped the Caps out of the playoffs, it comes down to giving them a taste of their own medicine on the forecheck.
“I’ve always felt that way, whether it was when I played there, or even playing against them now,” says van Riemsdyk. “They’re obviously a great team – at home and away – but especially at home, they try to overwhelm you. They’ve got a great crowd that’s loud, that’s right on top of you, and they try to come out hard early. And you can be as ready as you want for it, but the pace they play with, the energy they play with shift after shift after shift, it’s not like their top line comes out and slows it down, and you can catch your breath then. They all play the same, and they all do it really well.
“I’ve always thought that you can’t tiptoe in and try to slowly tilt the ice back in your favor against a team like this, because they’re just coming in waves. You have to try to play as hard as they do and just instantly flip the ice. It’s not like, ‘Well, we’ll slowly but surely gain it back.’ You’ve got to play it just as aggressive. You can’t sit back and hope you get some bounces and then you’ll start playing in their end. It’s about playing just as aggressive.
“They do things pretty predictably, and they obviously know what their [defensemen] are doing, and they know what their forwards are doing, so they can all be in the right places. But that means that with our depth and the way we can play, you can try to read that a little bit and try to be on your toes. And it’s hard to do, because there’s a lot of shifts where you’re playing in the [defensive] zone, and that’s tiring, and it’s hard to then get on the forecheck. But if you can find ways to do that, and to try to flip the ice in an aggressive manner, I think that’s the best way. It’s when you’re trying to slowly get it back, that it just feels like an insurmountable mountain.
“But if you are able to all together come in, forecheck hard and make them play against themselves, almost where it’s like you’re playing a similar style to them, it makes it really hard for them. And then when you do get the puck in the [offensive] zone, hang onto it and make plays. It’s when you can’t seem to find time in the [offensive] zone that it feels like you’re in your own end the whole game.”
Given the number of times they’ve faced the Hurricanes in the last seven seasons and the fact that they play a similar system themselves, the Caps should have some insight into doing as van Riemsdyk suggests, making the Canes essentially play against themselves.
“We just know the ins and outs of their system, because we play the same thing,” says Carbery. “What does that mean? What is the impact on the series? I don’t think there is anything really significant. You know the strengths of the certain systems, and you know some of the areas where you’ve been weak or where you’ve been exposed through the year, so there’s that part.
“And then it just becomes two teams, and who can do it better and who can do it more consistently for a longer period of time, and that’s what it’s going to be: Can we stay with it? Can we impose our will? Can we win a few more puck battles? Can we make a play here or there? Can our special teams out-perform theirs? All those little things that – as we’ve talked about – decide games at this time of year when the margins are so thin.”
Starting Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, we will gradually learn the answers to those and other questions.
We’re obviously very familiar with them,” says Wilson. “Everyone is familiar with everyone these days; it seems like there’s so much video and there’s so much scouting that goes into it all. Obviously the emotions are there already because of what went down in the last couple of [regular season] games. Those are high compete and high energy games, and it’s a rival; it’s a divisional opponent.
“They’ve been a measuring stick in this division for a long time, and obviously the Caps’ franchise has been the same. So you’re going to have two really fast, big teams in the East going at it, and I think it’s going to be high-paced, physical, detailed hockey.”
We can’t wait any longer. Bring on the second round.

source