Everything points to Alexandre Carrier playing tonight

Are you ready for Game 5 of the Habs’ series against the Capitals tonight in Washington?

Reminder: one loss and the CH goes on vacation.

The Caps have a 3-1 series lead…

For tonight’s game, we’re keeping an eye on a few stakes.

Among them? The presence (or not) of Alexandre Carrier… who had to leave the last game after being buzzed by Tom Wilson.

The Habs defenseman didn’t train with the group on Monday, and it was unclear whether he’d be able to take part in the game even though he made the trip with the team.

But all indications are that he will play tonight, according to the warm-up :

Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky
Gallagher-Dvorak-Anderson
Newhook-Evans-Demidov
Heineman-Kapanen-Armia
Matheson-Carrier
Guhle-Hutson
Xhekaj-Savard
Dobes

– Eric Engels (@EricEngels) April 30, 2025

We already know that Patrik Laine won’t be playing tonight.

Oliver Kapanen is likely to keep his place at center on the fourth unit… but given that it’s do or die for the Habs tonight, we can expect Martin St-Louis not to use him much.

Samuel Montembeault won’t be playing either.

The Canadiens’ goalkeeper is still nursing an injury, and it will be Jakub Dobes’s job to be good enough in front of the net tonight to give his club a chance of winning.

In defense, there are no changes to the line-up.

Arber Xhekaj will keep his place in the line-up and Jayden Struble will be left out.

Extension

On the other side of the rink, Logan Thompson will be the Capitals’ starting goaltender tonight.

Aliaksei Protas, who missed the start of the series, will also be in uniform.

Protas in.

– Eric Engels (@EricEngels) April 30, 2025