Wilson enjoys special place in Canadiens history with Capitals

The next goal the Montreal Canadiens score against the Washington Capitals will be No. 595 in regular-season and Stanley Cup Playoff games between the teams.

Watching from his home in Ottawa will be Murray Wilson, who holds a record that will stand forever.

Goal No. 595 might come during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round between the Capitals and the visiting Canadiens on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, ESPN, SN, TVAS).

Early in his third NHL season, Wilson scored the first Canadiens goal against the Capitals, on Oct. 31, 1974, beating goalie Michel Belhumeur on a breakaway at Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.

It was the only goal Montreal would need in a 3-0 win, the only time in six victories against Washington during the latter's inaugural 1974-75 season the Canadiens scored fewer than seven goals.

Attendance that Halloween night was listed at 8,251, one newspaper story reporting the building was so quiet that the crowd could hear Canadiens coach Scotty Bowman yelling at his team.

Murray Wilson during a ceremony on Bell Centre ice Oct. 22, 2024, and in action against the Washington Capitals at the Montreal Forum.

"There wasn't anyone in the stands," Wilson remembered in a conversation Monday. "That was an anomaly for the Canadiens. Anywhere we played the buildings were sold out. Capital Centre was way out in the middle of nowhere. I recall thinking, 'What are they doing out there?' We came, we played and we left."

The fleet-skating left-wing had nine points (four goals, five assists) in 16 career games with Montreal against Washington between 1972-77. In seven games with the Los Angeles Kings in 1978-79, his final NHL season, he had three points (one goal, two assists) against the Capitals.

Wilson's milestone 1974 goal rivals another personal highlight against Washington. That came Jan. 12, 1975, in a 7-2 road win when he threaded a perfect pass to linemate Peter Mahovlich, parked at the corner of goalie Ron Low's net, for an easy tip-in.

Born in Toronto and playing his major-junior hockey in Ottawa, Wilson was the third of three Canadiens first-round picks at the 1971 NHL Draft, chosen No. 11 after Montreal selected forwards Guy Lafleur at No. 1 and Chuck Arnason at No. 7.

Wilson played his first pro season with the Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate in Nova Scotia in 1971-72, then performed well through training camp in 1972, getting plenty of ice time during preseasons with stars Yvan Cournoyer and Frank and Peter Mahovlich playing with Canada's 1972 Summit Series team.

Murray Wilson heads up ice from behind the Canadiens net in a mid-1970s Montreal Forum training camp photo. From left: Marc Tardif, Guy Lafleur, Peter Mahovlich, Wilson and Henri Richard.

"Scotty [Bowman] told me early, 'Don't take penalties,'" said Wilson, now 73. "I stuck through camp, and I stayed."

Early on, some compared the swift skater to the graceful Frank Mahovlich, an idol of his youth.

"I may have skated like Frank but I weighed 170 pounds when I first went to camp, finally getting to 180," he said. “Frank was also about 6-foot-1, but he was 205, 210. He was solid and thick and big and powerful. I was just fast and quick.

"The more scared you are," he added, laughing, "the quicker you skate."

Wilson would win the Stanley Cup four times with the Canadiens, his name misspelled "Murry" on the trophy in 1973, 1976 and 1977. It finally appeared as it should in 1978, Wilson's preteen grandson, Oscar, gently scolding a Hall of Fame staffer during a recent visit to the Toronto shrine after noticing the typos had been corrected on the Cup displayed in the Great Hall.

Wilson harkens back to the wisdom of Bowman when he considers the challenge ahead for the Canadiens, seeded No. 8 in the Eastern Conference, against the No. 1 Capitals.

"Scotty always said that your third and fourth lines are the difference in the playoffs, that they have to be better than the other team's third and fourth," Wilson said. "If the Canadiens' third line can work their tails off and frustrate Alex Ovechkin a bit …"

Murray Wilson shoots on Toronto goalie Gord McRae during a 1975 Maple Leaf Gardens game. Defenseman Rod Seiling helps out with the Canadiens' Glen Sather and Guy Lafleur in the background.

Wilson eagerly will tune in to see how his former team can fare against a formidable foe. He'll no doubt see old friend Kirk Muller, a Capitals assistant coach, behind the Washington bench and remember "one of my greatest nights on the road."

Wilson was a radio analyst and Muller a Canadiens assistant the previous time Montreal met Washington with the same playoff seedings, the Canadiens stunning the Capitals in a seven-game first round victory in 2010.

"We went straight from Washington to Pittsburgh [for the second round]," he recalled. "I was collecting 2004 Bordeaux with Pierre Gervais [then the Canadiens equipment manager], and there were some really good wine stores in both cities.

"I was the only one with a big suitcase, on the road from Ottawa for the playoffs, and I already had six bottles in it. We got to Pittsburgh about 2 in the morning and I told Kirk, 'Come to my room, I have some nice wine for you,'" extending the same invitation to hotel neighbor David Mulder, the Canadiens' long-time chief surgeon and doctor.

"We were there until 5 in the morning and my suitcase wasn't anywhere near as heavy afterward. It was a great night with two of my favorite people in the game."

Top photo: Murray Wilson in full flight during a mid-1970s game with the Montreal Canadiens.