Capitals prepare for raucous crowd as they take 2-0 series lead to Montreal

The Capitals stole two games from the Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Arena this week to open their first-round playoff series.

Playing playoff hockey in Montreal, which will host Friday’s Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4, is a different beast.

Alex Ovechkin and company will become public enemy No. 1 for 20,000 hockey-crazed fans.

“I’m sure the Bell Centre will be rocking,” Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun said Thursday of Montreal’s arena. “I’m excited for that.”

The energized crowd presents challenges for Chychrun and the rest of Washington’s group. The defenders will likely struggle to communicate, while Capitals coach Spencer Carbery, as the visitor, will have to make substitutions first. That could give Montreal coach Martin St. Louis a slight tactical edge.

Montreal’s fans are hungry — they haven’t seen postseason hockey at the Bell Centre since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, which the Canadiens lost.

“These are high-pressure games, loud atmosphere, tough to communicate,” Chychrun said. “That’s when you’ve got to rely on your details and structure.”

After three straight losing seasons, the Canadiens snuck into the postseason as the final wild-card team in the Eastern Conference.

The heavily favored Capitals scraped through the first two games by the skin of their teeth. An Ovechkin overtime goal secured victory in Game 1, while goaltender Logan Thompson survived a furious third-period onslaught for another close win in Game 2.

The Canadiens’ faithful are ready to make life difficult for the Capitals as the series shifts to Montreal.

“Late in the season, with the push they had, [the fans] were really ramping up the energy. It’s going to be another level up from that,” Chychrun said.

A raucous environment isn’t new for Carbery’s squad. The second-year coach brushed off concerns about the Montreal crowd after Thursday morning’s optional skate.

Carbery worked as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs and experienced rivalry tilts with Montreal firsthand.

“I know people say it’s like no other experience in the league of playoff hockey in Montreal at the Bell Centre,” Carbery said. “I’m a little bit biased because I thought our building was pretty impressive over the last two games.”

This year’s Capitals, like the fans in Washington, are a rowdy bunch.

A pregame video before Wednesday’s Game 2 showed forward Brandon Duhaime announcing the starting line-up. The energized speech ended with Duhaime eating the paper card.

To Chychrun, who has played with Duhaime since they were children, the show is nothing new.

“He keeps things loose when everyone else might be tight, and he’s just a great balance, a great guy to have,” the defenseman said. “I’m glad that the guys here get to experience him the way I have since I’ve been a kid.”

The paper-eating is apparently one of many, many Duhaime motivators.

“That’s just scratching the surface of what the cameras see with our group,” Carbery said. “They’re just a really tight-knit group with a lot of personality, which I love. It’s what makes our group so special and why we have so much fun at the rink, even when we’re trying to get better.”

With a pair of wins in Montreal this weekend, the Capitals could earn their first four-game postseason sweep in franchise history. They would also move on to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2018 Stanley Cup run.

The Capitals may receive some reinforcements for the weekend. Forward Aliaksei Protas will travel with the team to Montreal after missing the last eight games with a skate cut on his foot.

Protas finally shed his non-contact jersey for Wednesday’s pregame skate.

Carbery hasn’t confirmed anything, but Protas is widely expected to return to the lineup before the series ends.

With or without him, this year’s Capitals will keep living off screeching crowds and pregame paper snacks.

“It’s just special. It’s been fun. The atmospheres and fans are awesome, and it’s been probably the most fun I’ve had, playing in these hockey games,” Chychrun said. “Hopefully we keep it going.”