'Best team in the league': Canadiens' St. Louis throws pressure on favoured Capitals

Martin St. Louis is putting the pressure on Washington.

While the Montreal Canadiens clawed their way into the playoffs, the Capitals flirted with first place in the NHL all season.

So who should be feeling the heat when the two teams meet in the first round of their NHL playoff series Monday night in the U.S capital?

"I feel it's the best team in the league," the Canadiens head coach said for a third time about his opponent. "You do the math."

Led by captain Alex Ovechkin, who eclipsed Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record April 6, Washington topped the Eastern Conference with 111 points this season.

Montreal, meanwhile, clinched the final wild card with 91 points — a number that wouldn't have qualified in the West — and a minus-20 goal-differential.

But playing the underdog is nothing new for the Canadiens. They've already defied the odds just to reach the post-season.

A rebuilding team, Montreal missed the playoffs in three consecutive years before this season's surprise run.

Late-April hockey looked out of the question when the Canadiens ranked 31st on Dec. 1, and again when St. Louis's squad sputtered before February's 4 Nations tournament break.

Captain Nick Suzuki and rookie sensation Lane Hutson then played key roles in a complete team effort to climb the standings, and Montreal rallied with a 15-5-6 in the final quarter of the season.

"They're the one seed and we just snuck in, but I think we don't really feel like we're an eight seed," Suzuki said. "We've been playing really good hockey. We're a really confident group."

The Canadiens — with an average age of 25.8 years — are by far the youngest team to make the playoffs. But Suzuki believes they've gained plenty of experience in pressure-packed games