One of the advantages the Capitals seemed to have on paper coming into their first-round matchup with the Canadiens was a higher level of physicality. The Caps are undoubtedly a bigger team – one of the biggest in the league, in fact, with an average height of roughly 6’2″ (third-tallest) and weight of 202.3 lbs (sixth-heaviest) compared to Montreal’s average of about 6’0″ and 199.9 (31st and 12th, respectively). They play a hard, heavy game that differs greatly from the way Montreal usually likes to play.
The question coming in was whether the Caps would use their physicality and establish the checking game early on…a question which was very quickly answered, as the first line stepped on the ice and immediately began laying the body on the Canadiens:
Despite losing the opening draw, the Caps started throwing hits almost immediately, regaining possession that led to a great scoring chance by Connor McMichael.