WASHINGTON, DC – Perhaps one of the most anticipated series of the 2009-10 play-offs is the Washington Capital’s match up with one of the games most famous clubs, the Montreal Canadiens. The Caps had a tremendous regular season, culminating in their first ever Presidents Trophy for the league’s best record. The Canadiens on the other hand scrapped into the post-season by a single point, largely off the back of netminder Jaroslav Halak who was outstanding down the stretch for the Habs.
Here is our series preview of the Caps/Habs series
Washington
For a large number of fans, Washington is one of the favourites to lift the Stanley Cup this summer. Building on last year’s success, they added some grit and experience to compliment their young stars when they signed veteran forwards Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrisson in the summer. They also added Jason Chimera in late December and gritty forward Scott Walker at the trade deadline to assemble one of the most fearsome offensive line ups in the league. 
Bruce Boudreau’s side scored an incredible 318 goals – a full 46 ahead of the next best team, Vancouver, who scored 272. Of course it never hurts to have NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin on your roster. The speedy Russian fired home his third straight 50 goal season (and fourth in five seasons) on the way to 109 points in just 72 games, and smashed through the 500th point barrier along the way.
The Russian star was ably assisted by fellow countryman Alexander Semin (40 goals and 84 points), offensive defenseman Mike Green, and a break out year from young center Nicklas Backstrom, who lit the lamp 33 times on the way to his first 100 point season, finishing the year with 101 points.
Defensively, they remain potent going forward. Mike Green remains one of the game’s elite D-men on the puck, and the addition of Joe Corvo means the Caps have two very capable puck moving defensemen to quarterback their power play units.
However, question marks still remain about the Caps play in their own end, and how it might hold up if the forwards are held at bay. Further question marks remain between the pipes for Washington. The team announced Jose Theodore would be the teams #1 going in to the first round, but the former Montreal and Colorado netminder left practise early on Tuesday after being struck by a shot from Ovechkin. Many pundits and commentators still question Theodore’s ability to take the Caps far in to the post-season, especially since he has never played beyond the second round himself. Semyon Varlamov appears to remain the future of the franchise in terms of goaltending; along with fellow prospect Michal Neuvrith, offers limited experience in the backup role should Theodore slip.
Montreal
The Canadiens offence offered little to write home about this season other than perhaps the strong play of Tomas Pleckanec. The Czech forward was the only member of the team to reach the 70 point mark and is one of only three players to score more than 20 goals for the team. More will be needed, and expected, of high priced center Scott Gomez than his 12 goals and 59 points during the regular season. And while both Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta, two marquee free agent signings for the team in the Summer, both missed some time due to injury, neither were particularly outstanding on their way to 26 and 28 goals seasons respectively.
The return of Andrei Markov and improved play of depth players such as Glen Metropolit helped the Habs down the stretch, but Head Coach Jacques Martin will be looking to get more help from his top two lines if Montreal is to test the Caps defence.
The Montreal defensive core of Markov, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Roman Hamrlik, Hal Gill and Jaroslav Spacek has plenty of NHL experience, while Markov and Bergeron in particular should provide some production from the points. While they don’t carry many elite players other than Markov, it should provide some protection in front of Halak.
Halak is Montreal’s key in this series. The Slovak puck stopper has been excellent this season for both club and country. If his form continues Montreal has an outside chance of an upset.
Montreal also has the luxury of Carey Price as back up. Whilst Price’s numbers haven’t been great this season, his play has been solid and he does have experience in pressure situations from his time with the Canadian junior team at the World Championships.
Contact the author: rob.mcgregor@prohockeynews.com
Photos by Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
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