Projected Lineups for the Canadiens vs Capitals - 4/30/25 - The Hockey Writers - Projected Lineups

The Montreal Canadiens take on the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of their first round playoff matchup at Capital One Arena tonight. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

CANADIENS (WC2) at CAPITALS (1M)

Eastern Conference First Round, Game 5

7 p.m. ET; MNMT, ESPN, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC

Washington leads best-of-7 series 3-1

Canadiens projected lineup

Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Josh Anderson — Christian Dvorak — Brendan Gallagher
Alex Newhook — Jake Evans — Ivan Demidov
Emil Heineman — Oliver Kapanen — Joel Armia

Mike Matheson — Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle — Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj — David Savard

Jakub Dobes
Cayden Primeau

Scratched: Jayden Struble, Michael Pezzetta

Injured: Sam Montembeault (undisclosed), Patrik Laine (upper body)

Status report:

Laine will not play; the forward practiced Tuesday after missing Games 3 and 4. … Carrier will be a game-time decision after being hit by Wilson in the third period of a 5-2 loss in Game 4 on Sunday. … Dobes will make his first Stanley Cup Playoff start with Montembeault, a goalie, not making the trip.

Latest for THW:

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane — Lars Eller — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Anthony Beauvillier

Jakob Chychrun — John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy
Alex Alexeyev — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Ethen Frank, Dylan McIlrath, Ethan Bear, Clay Stevenson, Taylor Raddysh

Injured: Martin Fehervary (lower body), Sonny Milano (upper body)

Status report

Protas is expected to return after being a full participant at practice Tuesday; he has not played since April 4 because of a skate cut on his left foot.