WASHINGTON — Martin St. Louis was getting peppered with questions about his defence corps.
The Montreal Canadiens head coach knew what was really being asked.
The Washington Capitals came out with a barrage of hits to intimidate the Canadiens and win Game 1 of their first-round playoff series 3-2 in overtime Monday night.
Bruising defenceman Arber Xhekaj watched from the press box as Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and company took runs at his teammates at will. Now the question is whether St. Louis will send his most imposing piece into the ring for Game 2.
"I know where you guys are just trying to get me to answer,” St. Louis told a room of reporters at Capital One Arena on Tuesday afternoon. "I have Xhekaj. It's a card. I might play him, I don't know yet, but it's good to have."
The Capitals outhit the Canadiens 42 to 33, including 20 to 14 in the first period. Washington also played the aggressor between whistles against a young Montreal team lacking playoff experience.
Regardless of whether the six-foot-four, 240-pound Xhekaj laces up his skates, the Canadiens believe they can punch back and even the series Wednesday night.
"We can be a physical team," centre Alex Newhook said. "We've got a lot of big guys, we've got a lot of strong guys here and I think with our pace we can bring that physicality as well, and match it.
"(Xhekaj) has that presence where guys are going to have to answer the bell when a guy like that's on the ice … But I think we know we can match their physicality regardless of who we have out there."
Xhekaj — also known as "The Sheriff" — is no stranger to dropping the gloves in defence of his teammates.
The 24-year-old plays with a grittiness and an edge that could both benefit the team in a chippy playoff series and harm it through penalties.
He hasn't played since April 6 against the Nashville Predators, with Alexandre Carrier, Mike Matheson, Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, David Savard and Jayden Struble holding down their spots on the Canadiens' blue line.
"You have to take someone out, too," St. Louis said of inserting Xhekaj. "What do you win, what do you lose? I don’t think it will change Wilson’s style of play."
"Washington is going to keep doing the same thing," he later added. "They're very good at it. Listen, they are where they are for a reason. This is a very good hockey team."
St. Louis iced the same lines and pairings at practice Tuesday, with one minor adjustment.
Winger Oliver Kapanen filled in for absent forward Brendan Gallagher, who took an unpenalized cross-check to the teeth from Alexander Alexeyev in Game 1. St. Louis said the veteran "will be fine."
Monday’s first period began with back-to-back crushing checks from Ovechkin and Anthony Beauvillier.
Wilson — a heavyweight hitter at six-foot-four, 225 pounds — laid out Guhle behind the Canadiens' net later in the frame.
Andrew Mangiapane then sucker-punched rookie Hutson in a scrum and came out of it with a Capitals power play, leading to Ovechkin’s opening goal.
"It's part of playoff hockey," Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. "When the stakes get raised, the physical intensity of the games increases significantly.
"Any opportunity, especially when you're trying to win a series ... you want to be able to literally and figuratively physically impose your will on your opponent."
Matheson said the Canadiens knew the Capitals would come out flying. He thought his group bounced back from the shaky start.
"They’re heavy, they're fast and they bring a big forecheck," he said. "We knew it would be like this, that doesn't make it any easier, but in the third period we showed we can play with them."
Montreal scored twice in the final 10 minutes of regulation to rally back and force overtime, where Ovechkin buried the winner.
Washington controlled the opening 30 minutes, but St. Louis was encouraged by how his young group pushed back after settling into the game.
"I can’t say that we had a player that was way off," he said, in response to a question about Struble's play. "Everybody felt the speed of the game early, the physicality, and that’s something, you can’t practice that.
"You go in the major leagues and the first time you see a 98-mile-an-hour fastball, you’re probably not going to touch it. Eventually you start maybe fouling it off, and the goal is for us to be able to hit singles and doubles eventually. I thought we did that in the third."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
