The Washington Capitals will take on the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The series begins on Monday night April 21st at 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena.
Schedule and more
All first round games will be televised on Monumental Sports Network. The Caps will host Game 1 and 2 and if necessary Game 5 and 7 while Game 3, 4, and 6 will be played at Montreal's Belle Centre.
Game 1 Monday April 21 Montreal at Washington on Monumental and ESPN 7 p.m.
Game 2 Wednesday April 23 Montreal at Washington on Monumental and ESPN 7 p.m.
Game 3 Friday April 25 Washington at Montreal on Monumental, TNT, truTV, and MAX 7 p.m.
Game 4 Sunday April 27 Washington at Montreal on Monumental, TBS, truTV, and MAX 6:30 p.m.
Game 5 Wednesday April 30 Montreal at Washington on Monumental and TBD game time TBD if necessary
Game 6 Friday May 2 Washington at Montreal on Monumental and TBD game tiime TBD if necessary
Game 7 Sunday May 4 Montreal at Washington on Monumental and TBD game time TBD if necessary
A limited number of individual game tickets for all possible home games of the First Round are now available via Ticketmaster.com and Caps fans are encouraged to buy tickets directly from the team.
Monumental Sports Network's First Round coverage includes live broadcasts of all games along with hour long pregame and postgame programs. The broadcast booth features play by play award winning announcer Joe Beninati and game analyst Craig Laughlin as the duo is wrapping up their 28th consecutive season together.
They'll be joined by rinkside reporter Al Koken who will provide exclusive in game interviews. Other talent include analysts Alan May, Bruce Boudreau, Brent Johnson, Devante Smith-Pelly, Tarik El-Bashir, and Karl Alzner while Russ Thaler of CBS Sports and The Tennis Channel as well as previously named CSN Mid Atlantic will host the pre and postgame shows while Alexa Landestoy is on maternity leave.
Washington was the first team to clinch a berth in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs which was a big improvement from a year ago where it took until the final regular season game to be the last team in. They are the only team since 1970-80 that has gone from being the last team to clinch a playoff spot one season to the first team to do so the next season.
The Capitals have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 10h time in the last 11 seasons and the 34th time in their 50 year history. Since 2007-08, no other team has made the playoffs more than Washington with 16 playoff trips in 18 seasons. In addition, the Capitals have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs 34 times in the last 42 years dating back to 1982-83. That is tied with the Boston Bruins for the most playoff appearances in the NHL in that span.
Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Tom Wilson and company also achieved the franchise's 14th division title and fifth first place finish in the Eastern Conference. Ovechkin and Wilson, along with Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael helped power one of the NHL's highest scoring offenses.
Carlson and the recently extended Jakob Chychrun helped make the blue line protective and stout. This season Washington had three players score 30 goals for the first time since 2009-10 while six defensemen recorded 20 points for the first time ever. The goalie tandem of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren have combined for 51 wins as the Caps have high asperations of winning their second Stanley Cup.
The Capitals additionally announced giveaways and initiatives surrounding the playoffs. That includes a Playoff Pep Rally at Union Market on Friday April 18 from 5-7:30. All fans attending Game 1 will receive LED light sticks as well as a rally towel while all fans at Game 2 will take home a rally towel.
You can feel the magic in the air around DC as playoff hockey is coming back and is right on the horizon. We have to wait patiently until Monday night but soon it'll be all systems go.