2025 Stanley Cup Playoff Preview: Washington Capitals vs. Montreal Canadiens

A first-place Washington Capitals team led by Alexander Ovechkin. An eighth-seed Habs squad, weak defensively but buoyed by goaltending, led offensively by a two-way centre wearing #14 and a diminutive sniper wearing #13. 

Whether those sentences make you nostalgic or excited for the 2025 first round might depend on how old you were in 2010, when the Habs broke the Capitals' brains by stretching the outer limits of how far a goalie can carry a mediocre roster. 

15 years later, here we are. The Capitals, ridiculed all season long for their sky-high percentages and inflated win totals, are the ones laughing now as they get to take on an ahead-of-schedule and deeply flawed Canadiens team. Their fans would be thanking the hockey gods for their good fortune if it weren't for those bad memories.

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