The Washington Capitals held their first 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs practice at Capital One Arena on Saturday morning. Game 1 of the team’s first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens is set for puck drop at 7 pm on Monday.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery ran the club through full line rushes at the skate, giving insight into how they could line up to start the series against the Habs.
Practice lines
The top line Carbery assembled, made up of Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, and Anthony Beauvillier, is a combination that provided good results for the Capitals in a very limited sample size at the end of the regular season. The three played just 24:26 of combined five-on-five ice time together, outscoring the opposition 2-0 and seeing 52 percent of the expected goals and 68.8 percent of the high-danger chances.
Ovechkin and Strome are the team’s top two scorers and their hottest two players coming into the postseason, recording a combined 22 points (13g, 9a) in April. Beauvillier, added at the trade deadline, did not record a single point during the final nine games of the season.
Pierre-Luc Dubois mans the second line with a familiar wing pairing of Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson. The three will more than likely be tasked with the direct assignment against Montreal’s first line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky. Carbery has trusted the trio with similar assignments the whole year, and with them on the ice, the Capitals have collected 51.4 percent of the shot attempts, 54.4 percent of the expected goals, 54.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 55.2 percent of the high-danger chances.
Ryan Leonard appears set for his first-ever action in the NHL playoffs, lined up with Lars Eller and Andrew Mangiapane on the third line. In their 40:36 of five-on-five ice time together, the Caps did not manage to find the back of the net despite creating 2.45 expected goals, which was 62.8 percent of the expected goals during their shifts.
Carbery’s trusty fourth line, centered by Nic Dowd with Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh flanking him, was a constant early in the season for the Capitals and reunited regularly in the final weeks of the year. Despite taking 345 combined defensive zone and neutral zone faceoffs compared to just 31 offensive zone faceoffs, the three saw 50.6 percent of the expected goals and 52.8 percent of the scoring chances.
On defense, Carbery has put together an ultra-offensive first pairing of Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson. The two started the season playing regularly with one another, but eventually began to be used only if the Capitals were down in a game and needed quick offense. They lived up to that billing when on the ice as the Capitals outscored opponents 20-12 during their 387:27 of combined ice time.
Rasmus Sandin and Matt Roy seem set to serve as Carbery’s primary shutdown pairing. They played tough minutes during the regular season together and excelled. The Capitals garnered 55.1 percent of the expected goals with them on the ice at five-on-five despite seeing just 49.9 percent of the shot attempts.
The third pairing of Alex Alexeyev and Trevor Van Riemsdyk may just be a placeholder for now. Martin Fehervary is on the shelf due to a suspected lower-body injury suffered against the New York Islanders earlier this week and did not skate Saturday. Alexeyev played in just eight regular-season games this year but did play in all four playoff games against the New York Rangers last year.
Logan Thompson was a full participant in the skate, manning one net with Charlie Lindgren manning the other. Clay Stevenson is still up with the club and took the extra reps. Lindgren made five of the last seven starts of the season after Thompson was injured against the Carolina Hurricanes on April 2.
Thompson and Lindgren made two appearances each against the Canadiens during the regular season. Thompson stopped 40 of the 45 shots he faced, while Lindgren stopped 21 of the 24.
