Although Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki showed worthy efforts, the depth crisis was revealed by the exit of the Montreal Canadiens from the Stanley Cup

Hopeful for the youth and the excitement of being back in postseason hockey after so long, the Montreal Canadiens entered the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yet that hope was short-lived. The first-round face-off against the Washington Capitals saw the Canadiens knocked out after five games, a campaign effectively ended with a 4-1 series loss. While there were flashes of magic from key forwards like Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, other shortcomings in team two, particularly in terms of depth scoring and playoff readiness, dulled the shine of those performances.

While the stars made their expected contribution of five goals between them, the rest of the forwards were unheard of. Juraj Slafkovsky notched two goals, but that was it; the near-postseason collapse that saw names like Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson break out in so many regular-season rounds, not forgetting mid-season pick-up Patrik Laine, saw them relegated to static. Plus, with Laine missing in all three key final games because of an upper-body injury, the depth shine has been further scratched. In four losses, only three even-strength goals were scored by the team, summarizing the sheer inability beyond the first line.

More critically, the Capitals exposed Montreal's inexperience on defense. Young blue-liners, like Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, and Jayden Struble, were making their playoff debuts and often on the bad side of Washington's forecheck and physical pace. While Hutson showed offensive potential by leading the team in assists, resulting goals from his missed defensive assignments and turnovers in the offensive zone provided plenty of time for the Capitals to score and swayed momentum deep in Washington's favor, especially during Games 1 and 4.

The goaltending situation in Montreal changed dramatically towards the latter stages of the series, with Sam Montembeault having performed reasonably well in the first 2 games only to be injured in the 3rd game. Now, rookie Jakub Dobes had to be thrown into the fray under pressure and failed to summon Montembeault's match temperament, not to mention lacking playoff experience. The same was visible, particularly in Game 4, when Montreal had squandered a late lead.

While the Canadiens had a flash of control every now and then as their Game 3 win or their early lead in Game 5-those flashes would never make up for blown chances and mental mistakes. In the end, Washington was always that and most importantly showed team-wide offensive production complementing their mistakes from Montreal.
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The early playoff exit of the Montreal Canadiens is quite a learning wake-up call. There is a very good foundation on which to build an exciting future with stars such as Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, but the franchise must now turn its attention toward establishing some depth, strengthening defense, and getting its goaltenders ready for big-game situations as part of the process.