The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs continued Monday night with a pair of ones and twos– as in “Game 1s and 2s.”
First, the Montréal Canadiens paid a visit to the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of their First Round series from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
The St. Louis Blues took on the Winnipeg Jets in Game 2 of their series from Canada Life Centre.
Later on, the Colorado Avalanche visited the Dallas Stars for Game 2 of their series at American Airlines Center before the Edmonton Oilers opened up their First Round matchup with the Los Angeles Kings on the road at crypto.com Arena.
Shoutout to Dave Goucher, by the way.
The play-by-play voice of the Vegas Golden Knights took to X (formerly Twitter) to defend the good, hard-working people of regional sports networks not just for his own Scripps Sports crew, but across the entire National Hockey League in the face of some remarks from ESPN’s John Buccigross.
History doesn’t repeat itself
In 2010, Tomáš Plekanec was the overtime hero for Montréal in Game 1 as the eighth seed Habs beat the first seed Capitals and later toppled Washington in a seven-game series upset.
In 2025, none of the Canadiens skaters could be like Plekanec and recreate the magic as the second wild card in the Eastern Conference in overtime in Game 1 against the Caps.
Instead, Alex Ovechkin added to his storied career with his first-ever game-winning goal in overtime in a Stanley Cup Playoff game.
That’s right, folks, the National Hockey League’s all-time regular season goal scoring leader hadn’t scored an overtime-winner in the postseason before Monday night.
The ESPN broadcast had just finished highlighting a shot of Ovechkin on screen before the face off prior to his game-winning goal because of course that would happen.
It was written and produced by the Hockey Gods. Absolute cinema.
It only took 45 postseason overtime games, but Ovechkin finally has what has eluded him longer than getting a Stanley Cup ring and surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goal mark.
Ovechkin also kicked off the night’s scoring late in the first period with a power-play goal to put Washington ahead, 1-0, at 18:34.
Midway through the second period, Anthony Beauvillier– a clutch playoff performer reminiscent of the likes of Michael Ryder, Joonas Donskoi and my other personal favorite “glue guys” that always seemed to show up when it mattered most– made it a, 2-0, lead for the Capitals at 12:09 of the middle frame.
Dylan Strome was off to a hot start with two assists and would finish the night with three assists– playing a helping hand in all three Washington goals and becoming the 19th player in Capitals history to record three assists in a playoff game (with John Carlson having been the most recent Capital to do so on April 11, 2019).
Washington and Montréal were pretty evenly matched despite the Caps’ two-goal lead through 40 minutes.
The Capitals led in shots on goal 23-21 entering the final frame, then pretty much forgot that there’s three periods in hockey.
The Canadiens outshot the Capitals 14-7 in the third period alone and with it scored a pair of goals about five minutes apart from one another.
Cole Caufield put the Habs on the scoreboard thanks to some good puck luck that bounced his way for an easy tally.
Then Montréal’s other longtime veteran– a relative term for such a young team– Nick Suzuki pounced on a loose puck amidst a mad scramble with bodies all over the ice and Washington goaltender, Logan Thompson, wildly out of position– far from the familiar blue paint of the crease.
Suzuki tied the game, 2-2, as the Canadiens had the Capitals holding on for dear life through the end of regulation.
And then it happened.
Just 2:26 into the extra frame after a 15-minute overtime intermission, Ovechkin sent the Washington fans home happy– especially since there was plenty of time to catch the Metro.
If you subtract Nicklas Bäckström and T.J. Oshie’s postseason experience, Washington entered the First Round with 776 games of playoff experience under their belt across the entire roster.
Montréal only had 385 games of playoff experience with none of those games stemming from a single goaltender entering Monday.
But neither of these teams have really meshed in a playoff environment like this.
The Capitals significantly overhauled their roster between their four-game exit in the 2024 First Round to the New York Rangers and the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canadiens have been working towards getting back into the postseason, though might have been ahead of schedule in their arrival this spring.
Despite attaining the best record in the Eastern Conference, Washington hasn’t faced the adversity of being a Stanley Cup favorite and thus forced to defend their honor in a while.
Did this season pry the Cup window back open in Ovechkin’s twilight– well, biologically speaking, anyway– or are we witnessing a happy accident in the making?
Both teams will progress further going into next year from having attained a playoff berth and gaining the experience from this matchup, regardless of who wins.
More first line heroics for Winnipeg
While depth scoring is paramount, sometimes all you really need to win a playoff game is more goals than the other team and doing so thanks to your best players.
Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves on 22 shots faced for a .955 save percentage in the, 2-1, win in Game 2 for Winnipeg, while Mark Scheifele continued to cement his status as a Jets legend and Kyle Connor added the game-winner early in the final frame.
Scheifele notched his 23rd career Stanley Cup Playoff goal– the most in Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise history– and gave the Jets a, 1-0, lead late in the first period.
The Jets defenders came to play in Game 2 with some dominant shifts and big hits as Logan Stanley imprinted his opponents along the glass and Dylan Samberg cleared the slot to bail out Hellebuyck when it mattered most.
Blues forward, Jimmy Snuggerud, tied the action, 1-1, on a power-play goal in the last second of the opening frame– beating Hellebucyk’s blocker side in the process for his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal, but that was all the offense that St. Louis would get Monday night.
Luke Schenn led Winnipeg’s defenders in hits with seven, while Stanley amassed three, Neal Pionk and Samberg each had two and Josh Morrissey had one.
Only Dylan DeMelo failed to record a hit from the Jets’ blue line, while David Gustafsson, Scheifele, Nino Niederreiter and Connor were the only forwards without a hit in the action.
Snuggerud and Jordan Kyrou were the only Blues forwards without a hit, while Tyler Tucker and Justin Faulk were the only St. Louis defenders to record at least one hit (Tucker had four).
Winnipeg led the physical aspect of the game in the first period, but St. Louis responded with vengeance in the middle period as Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours led the charge with five hits each by the end of the night.
If Game 1 was more speed and skill based, then Game 2 was more of a calculated response with a booming physical presence crunching both Jets and Blues players in the process.
Hellebuyck and Jordan Binnington both locked in, which is good news if you like low scoring goalie battles in postseason action.
Early in the final frame, Scheifele worked the puck low from the trapezoid to Cole Perfetti, who promptly setup Connor for the one-timer in the slot to give the Jets the, 2-1, lead 1:43 into the third period.
Winnipeg takes a 2-0 series lead heading back to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4 and is doing everything they need to be doing so far: (1) ensure your star players are performing, (2) get some depth scoring, (3) Hellebuyck dials in and (4) don’t let up the pressure, like, at all.
St. Louis is doing… …whatever Jim Montgomery is doing while singing along with “Your Love” on the bench (love that for him, though– we could all use a little more fun in the midst of our workdays).
There’s no Point in warmup, but there was Landeskog
Famously, Brayden Point plays for the Tampa Bay Lightning and I’m referencing Elliotte Friedman’s tweet from back in the day, but Gabriel Landeskog did take part in warmup for the Colorado Avalanche for the first time since June 26, 2022.
Landeskog did not, however, dress for Game 2 Monday night in Dallas.
Instead, Ross Colton wasn’t good to go and Miles Wood drew into the lineup for the Avs, while Landeskog’s return will have to wait for Game 3 in Denver at the earliest.
Nathan MacKinnon grabbed a quick, 1-0, lead for Colorado with a power-play goal before Tyler Seguin tied the game, 1-1, with a power-play goal of his own for the Stars in the last minute of the opening frame.
Thomas Harley fanned on a shot attempt while traffic blocked Mackenzie Blackwood’s sight lines on Harley’s recuperated effort and the Dallas defender scored on the far, glove side– giving the Stars a, 2-1, lead.
But the Avalanche continued to get the most out of their depth as Jack Drury tied things up 62 seconds after Harley’s goal.
A couple of huge penalty kills led to a shift in momentum for Colorado and Logan O’Connor sent a backhand top shelf while falling to give the Avs a, 3-2, lead with 32.1 seconds left in the middle frame.
The goal was O’Connor’s first goal in 22 postseason games and his second career Stanley Cup Playoff goal in the process.
In the playoffs, it’s important for your top six forwards to do their job and maximize depth scoring as much as possible when you can take it.
Outside of MacKinnon’s goal, Colorado’s top six forwards weren’t doing enough to maximize their depth contributions and get the desired results of a team looking to sap the Stars of their home ice advantage.
Just past the midpoint of the final frame, Evgenii Dadonov reminded everyone that age is just a number as the 36-year-old Russian forward collected a garbage goal– pocketing a rebound to tie the game, 3-3, with 9:47 remaining in regulation.
Both goaltenders faced a barrage of shots Monday as Blackwood turned aside 35 out of 39 shots faced in the overtime loss– good enough for an .897 save percentage– while Jake Oettinger made 34 saves on 37 shots against for a .919 SV% in the win.
Blackwood made a hell of a save on Mason Marchment early in the extra frame, but it wasn’t enough to rally his teammates as the Stars continued to surge as the game progressed.
Colin Blackwell– inserted into Dallas’ lineup for Game 2 in place of Mavrik Bourque– pounced on a loose puck before roofing it short side over Blackwood’s glove and under the bar after Sam Steel screened the Colorado goaltender and the Avs defenders were out of position.
Clearly, if Avalanche head coach, Jared Bednar, utilizes Landeskog in his lineup for Game 3, Colorado can continue the trend of “guys who just made their debut this postseason scoring the game-winning goal” in this series.
The Stars dictated the pace of Game 2 more than they did in Game 1, which if they’re able to do in Game 3 on Wednesday (9:30p ET on ESPN, SN360, TVAS2, Victory+, ALT) in front of a raucous crowd in enemy territory could be a good sign moving forward.
Dallas can’t get caught up in the emotion of the game, but rather needs to stay focused on the unfinished task at hand– getting back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2020, and winning it for the first time since 1999.
Colorado, meanwhile, could use a tremendous boost from the potential return of Landeskog in front of their home crowd and what Avs fan wouldn’t want to see him score in his first game back since Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final? Especially if it plays a pivotal role of taking command of a 2-1 series lead.
Phillip Danault is probably a little tired of the Oilers
For a guy that alleged the Edmonton Oilers were trying to hurt the Los Angeles Kings in their final meeting in the regular season to disrupt Los Angeles’ chances of (a) getting home ice in their divisional matchup and (b) potential long-term success in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Phillip Danault sure played like a guy that was pissed.
And it’s not like you can blame him when the Oilers have had the Kings’ number eight times in their 10 previous postseason series’– let alone for the last three years in the First Round in progressively fewer games each time.
Edmonton eliminated Los Angeles in seven games in 2022, six games in 2023, and five games in 2024, and each time it seemed like the Kings lost their footing more and more– even on their own ice.
But not Monday.
“Not one more day.” — Phillip Danault, probably
The Kings had a, 4-0, lead late in the second period. Danault had his first goal of the game at 17:43 of the middle frame, mind you, to give Los Angeles and all but in the bag effort for the night.
Then it looked like Kings head coach, Jim Hiller, might need to utilize a bag skate for his players to shake off whatever colossal collapse of Maple Leaf-sized proportions they were about to encounter.
Leon Draisaitl planted the seeds of doubt when he scored at 19:54 of the second period to get the Oilers on the scoreboard, 4-1.
Mattias Janmark scored at 2:19 of the third period to pull Edmonton to within two. How’s that for a wake up call?
“No worries, Kevin Fiala’s got this.” — Kings fans everywhere, probably after Fiala scored a little more than two minutes after Janmark’s tally
BUT THEN
Corey Perry notched his 55th career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal to pull Edmonton back to within two goals of tying the game at 7:43.
Maybe start to panic a little? But then again, there was still plenty of time left on the clock for Kris Knoblauch to pull Stuart Skinner for an extra skater and, well, Los Angeles would surely put it away by then, right? Right!?
Zach Hyman made it a one-goal game, 5-4, at 17:56. Connor McDavid once again put his team on his back and tied the game, 5-5, less than a minute later in the chaos.
Uh oh. The Kings were on their backs again at the hands of the Oilers. Surely the inevitable was looming.
Nope.
Trevor Moore rushed into the attacking zone on a lead pass from Vladislav Gavrikov and dropped the puck back to Danault.
Danault fluttered a knucklepuck shot past Skinner 46 seconds after McDavid knotted things up.
Danault’s goal at 19:18 of the third period was the latest that anyone in Kings history has scored a game-winning goal in the postseason.
Los Angeles had done it. They had one, 6-5.
But it’s only Game 1. The recent trend would’ve indicated that the Oilers were going to pull of the sweep this year, but it’s at least going to take five games now. A gentleman’s sweep.
Unless the Kings have anything to say about it.
They just might– especially if Andrei Kuzmenko, Quinton Byfield, Adrian Kempe, Danault and Fiala keep scoring. They also might want a little more effort from their defenders in Game 2 (I’m sure Darcy Kuemper would appreciate that as well).
Oh, but shoutout to Oilers forward, Jeff Skinner, by the way for making his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut after playing in 1,078 regular season games before doing so. That ended the longest active postseason appearance drought.
The Kings still took Game 1, though.
Down the Frozen River 
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