WASHINGTON — The clean slate that comes with the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs couldn’t have arrived at a better time for the Washington Capitals.

The Capitals limped over the finish line with a 4-7-1 record in their last 12 games. They were the first team in the NHL to clinch a spot in the playoffs, all the way back on March 20, and they secured the Metropolitan Division title April 8. Two days later, they locked up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, meaning they were playing out the string in their final four games.

“We’re just getting through the game, to be honest with you,” coach Spencer Carbery said after a loss at Pittsburgh in the regular season finale Thursday. “Just moving forward and getting ready for Montreal. … We moved a ton of things around, different guys, but it’s hard to take anything, any chemistry, out of that game.”

“We didn’t exactly end the year the way that we’d want to, but for us, we’ve been waiting for playoffs now for about a month,” forward Connor McMichael said. “I think all the guys are ready to go.”The Capitals are emphatic that they, as McMichael said, are ready to go for their first-round matchup against the Canadiens. Game 1 is Monday night at Capital One Arena.

“You play 82 games for this, and then it goes back to zero. There’s no such thing really as seeds or underdogs,” center Pierre-Luc Dubois said. “It just goes back to the 16 teams that deserve to be there, that are going to play their best hockey and are going to work as hard as they’ve ever worked.”

The Canadiens enter the series with momentum. Montreal won seven of its last 10 games and lost just once in regulation in April to surge to the East’s final playoff spot.

“A team that is playing well, is riding high, is always a confident team,” Carbery said. “They will, without question, be confident coming into this series.”

But the Capitals are confident, too, even after sputtering down the stretch. They also aren’t going to overlook the Canadiens, whose youthful lineup full of skill and speed could give them problems.

“Just because we had a great regular season and we’re sitting as the first seed in the East, I can promise you this: There’s not an overconfidence or a, ‘We’re the Washington Capitals versus the eight seed Montreal,’” Carbery said. “Just not part of our DNA. … We understand the challenges, and we know that we have to play at our best to get through anybody.”

“They’re a very skilled team. They’ve got some younger players that have had breakout years — [Cole] Caufield and [Nick] Suzuki and those guys can really score,” center Dylan Strome said. “[Juraj] Slafkovsky and obviously bringing in [rookie Ivan] Demidov — they’re an elite offensive team, and if we don’t check well and we don’t play our good defensive hockey, it’s going to be tough.”

Suzuki, Montreal’s captain, led his team with 89 points while playing all 82 games. Caufield scored a team-high 37 goals, and rookie defenseman Lane Hutson — the older brother of Capitals prospect Cole Hutson — racked up 66 points and is a leading candidate to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

The Canadiens are weaker defensively; they allowed 3.18 goals per game, tied for 23rd in the league. But their high-end offensive players can be game-breakers, so Washington will need to slow down the likes of Suzuki, Caufield and Patrik Laine.

Goaltending is a question mark for the Capitals. Logan Thompson hasn’t played since suffering an upper-body injury April 2. He skated with the team for the first time Tuesday and has been a full participant in every practice since, but his availability for Game 1 remains unknown. Charlie Lindgren had what Carbery called “one of his best starts that he’s made in a long time” in his regular season finale Tuesday; he stopped 32 of 33 shots in a win over the New York Islanders.

“I’m not sure who’s playing in Game 1, but our goaltenders have been good all year,” Strome said. “We have confidence in them. It’s on us to give them the best chance to be great goaltenders. We’ve got to play good, defensive hockey. If we do that, I think the rest will take care of itself.”

Winger Aliaksei Protas, who suffered a lower-body injury April 4, has not yet begun skating. Defenseman Martin Fehervary missed a segment of Tuesday’s matchup on Long Island with what appeared to be a lower-body injury; he returned to the game but hasn’t skated since, and his status for Monday is up in the air.

Little information will be coming from Carbery now that the playoffs are here.

“We’ve got guys working through some things. Some guys skating, not skating,” Carbery said. “For me to go into this guy’s 80 percent, this guy has a chance to play, this guy doesn’t — I’m just going to leave it as we’ve got a bunch of guys working through some things, progressing, potentially playing on Monday, potentially not.”

Regardless of who is in the lineup, the Capitals are determined to show that how they finished the regular season isn’t how they’re going to begin the playoffs.

“It’s going to be fun hockey,” Strome said. “This is the hockey that you love to play in, that you want to play in and want to be a part of.”