Chocolate City – For the second straight September, the Caps are playing one of their “home” preseason games against the Philadelphia Flyers at Giant Center in Hershey, where the Caps and the AHL Hershey Bears have formed one of the most enduring and prosperous affiliate relationships in pro hockey across the last two decades.
Since the two teams renewed their current affiliation in April of 2005, the Bears have won five Calder Cup crowns and the Caps, with plenty of help from players who cut their pro hockey teeth in Hershey, won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship just over eight years ago.
In addition to all the winning and prosperity at both levels, the Caps have relied on Hershey not just to develop players who can ascend to the NHL level in Washington, but the Bears have also routinely developed coaches and medical and other staff that have worked their way up from the AHL to work at the NHL level with the Capitals.
Half of the Caps dozen forwards, half of their six defensemen and one of their two goaltenders for tonight’s game all spent some of their formative development time in Hershey.
And let’s not forget that most of the Washington coaching staff and a chunk of its medical/training staff – starting with head coach Spencer Carbery – worked in Hershey before moving up to the NHL level.
Band Of Brothers – Fully one third of the players in tonight’s Capitals lineup have brothers who are playing or have played North American pro hockey. That group includes – most obviously – both Protas brothers [Aliaksei and Ilya], Dylan Strome, Ryan Leonard, Jordan Kyrou, Jonny Brodzinski, and Charlie Lindgren.
But it’s the twin tower Protas brothers who draw attention; they’re the first brothers to play for the Caps together in more than 20 years, and they’ve now played four regular season NHL games together after Ilya was summoned to Washington from Hershey late last season.
The Protas brothers shared the ice for three NHL preseason games before doing so in the regular season this past April. In those three preseason games, the Protases didn’t skate on the same line. The started camp skated on a line together, and tonight they’re going to be together again, with Jordan Kyrou – acquired in a trade with St. Louis in June – riding shotgun on the right side.
Through the first days of training camp, the Protas brothers have forged some good chemistry with Kyrou, and tonight they’ll take their first game spin together in Hershey against the Flyers.
“I just feel like we’re playing off each other, and communication is a big thing,” says Aliaksei Protas. “[Kyrou] is a really smart player, a really fast player – so skilled. It’s so fun to play with him so far. He can move the puck quick and move it really well. You’re just trying to read off him and he’s doing the same thing with us. It’s working good so far and hopefully we’re going to keep it going and find even more.”
“You’ve just got to give him the puck more,” says Ilya Protas of Kyrou. “He’s an unreal player, fast and skilled. You see him on the ice a lot and I look to him after practice to see what he’s doing on the ice. He is an unreal player. I’m really happy I got this opportunity to practice with him and play this game. Hopefully I will have more experience with this line.”
Ilya Protas made his NHL debut on April 8 in Toronto, and the Protas brothers assisted on a Cole Hutson goal in that contest, a 4-0 Washington win. That was the first NHL point for Ilya Protas – who had a goal and three assists in his four-game NHL splash last season – and it marked the first time in more than 14 years that a player factored on his brother’s first NHL point.
Although he is taking nothing for granted as what he hopes will be his first full NHL season gets underway, 20-year-old Ilya Protas says this camp feels different than his previous two NHL camps, and that the four late-season NHL games from 2025-26 give him some confidence as he gets ready for his second pro season, and hopefully his first full NHL campaign.
“It’s definitely a little bit different because you get the feeling of the League and you understand what you’re going to be prepared for, and you understand how the game works here,” says the younger of the Protas brothers. “Even those four games gave me lots of experience, I feel like. And it feels more different from the AHL, if we compare those Leagues. But I’m excited for the training camp, and we’ll see how those four games help.”
Even though they’ve suited up together several times now for NHL games, big – well, “older” – brother Aliaksei says the shine of the experience hasn’t faded, and he isn’t expecting that to happen.
“For sure,” he says. “I feel like every game is going to be like the first game. It’s a special feeling just to share it. We never thought back in the day that something like that was possible. We’re so happy, we don’t take it for granted and we just try to earn every game and every day together and work hard.”
In The Nets – A night after Logan Thompson turned in a sharp 30-save performance against the Bruins in Boston, Charlie Lindgren starts for the Caps against Philadelphia. While Thompson went the distance on Sunday in Beantown, Carbery stated after Monday’s morning skate that tonight’s game will be split between Lindgren and Clay Stevenson.
Lindgren is set to begin his fifth season with the Caps, and he has forged a 67-49-16 mark with Washington. He begins this season just three wins shy of matching Jim Carey and Pete Peeters (70 wins each) for fifth place on the Caps’ all-time goalie wins ledger.
Stevenson made his NHL debut in the regular season finale of the 2024-25 season, and he collected three wins in four starts with Washington last season. Stevenson was recalled midway through the season when Thompson was briefly sidelined, and the former picked up his first NHL win on Jan. 31 of this season, defeating Carolina at Capital One Arena. Stevenson was recalled again late in the season when Lindgren was ailing, and he again had the net for the season finale, a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets in Columbus.
In 109 games with AHL Hershey across four pro seasons, Stevenson has fashioned a 63-31-9 mark with nine shutouts, a 2.50 GAA and a .909 save pct.
Philadelphia had a strong season in 2025-26, ending a five-year Stanley Cup playoff drought that matched the longest in franchise history. First-year Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar signed with the team as an unrestricted free agent and turned in the best season of his NHL career with 29 wins.
This season, the Flyers acquired former Toronto netminder Joseph Woll to share the net with Vladar, and Woll and Carson Bjarnason (Philly’s second-round pick, 51st overall in the 2023 NHL Draft) will comprise the Philadelphia tandem on Monday night in Hershey.
According to Philly coach Rick Tocchet, Woll will start and play the first 40 minutes, and Bjarnason will take the crease for the final frame of Monday’s game against the Caps.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we except the Caps to look when they take the ice tonight in Hershey as well as a roster of likely Philly participants in Monday’s game:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
28-Cristall, 17-Strome, 9-Leonard
21-A. Protas, 62-I. Protas, 25-Kyrou
63-Miroshnichenko, 76-Brodzinski, 53-Frank
23-Niederbach, 40-Dunne, 87-Trineyev
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 27-Liljegren
4-Holl, 52-McIlrath
2-MacDonald, 41-Chesley
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
33-Stevenson
PHILADELPHIA
Forwards
10-Wilson
20-Bump
21-Aston-Reese
23-Studnicka
37-Thompson
50-Powell
54-Knuble
77-Luchanko
82-Gard
86-Barkey
91-Grundtsrom
94-Martone
Defensemen
3-Grans
5-Jiricek
19-McDonald
29-Murchison
44-Benoit
59-Bonk
Goaltenders
53-Woll
64-Bjarnason
