Tentative Decisions – Through the Caps first four games of the young season, center Pierre-Luc Dubois has been one of the team’s most important players and contributors. With four points (One goal, three assists) in as many games, Dubois is tied for second on the team’s scoring ledger, behind only linemate Tom Wilson (two goals, three assists). And with an average of 14:09 per game in even-strength ice time, Dubois leads all Washington forwards.
Dubois’ figure of 8:15 in third-period ice time at even strength in Friday’s win over the Rangers led all Washington skaters, as the Caps were able to successfully close out what was a 2-1 hockey game until Wilson tallied into an empty net with one second on the clock.
But the estimable Caps center was not at Saturday’s practice session because of illness, and his presence in the lineup for tonight’s homestand finale against the Seattle Kraken is a game-time decision.
“Dubois [is a] game-time decision,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “[Ethen Frank and Ivan Miroshnichenko] will warm up, and then we’ll make a decision from there. I’m not going to get into the hypotheticals on lines if he plays or if he doesn’t play, because it can go a bunch of different ways.”
Carbery also noted that Matt Roy skated on his own on Sunday morning, but he is still day-to-day, so Dylan McIlrath will be in the lineup for a third straight game tonight. The veteran defenseman didn’t play more than two consecutive contests at any point last season, but he did have a sustained stretch of playing time two years ago at this time, early in the 2024-25 season.
Seattle hits town for the second game of a five-game road trip after taking the opener in the Motor City over the Red Wings, 6-3 on Friday night. Each of the Caps’ first three wins of the season – and the first two of this homestand – have come against a Metro Division opponent. Carbery wants his team to make sure they don’t let up with a Western Conference opponent on their plate for the first time this season.
“[They’re] definitely deep,” says Carbery of the Kraken. “I think they’re very, very disciplined inside their structure, so they don’t deviate very often. So, you’re going to have to earn your offense tonight, and then I think they’ve got a lot of speed through their forward group.
“It’s going to be a good test today, and this is going to be one of those challenges for our group, of a Sunday afternoon [game against a] Western Conference opponent. What does that look like for us? What’s our process look like tonight, as opposed to against [Pittsburgh on Wednesday], and the Rangers – a division team – and that’s what I expect our group to show in a game like this against Seattle.”
Emergency On Planet Earth – With the new dedicated emergency backup goaltenders (EBUGs) in the NHL starting this season, there’s a lot of news and some buzz surrounding these new NHL staffers. They travel with the team, they’re with the coaches and players every day, and they practice and take shots while remaining at the ready for an emergency to arise that would require their participation in an actual NHL game.
But last Saturday night in Tampa, in their second game of the young season, the Caps faced an emergency of a different color. In the back half of the second period of that game against the Lightning, the Caps lost the services of defenseman Matt Roy when he departed the game with a lower body injury.
Roy departed with 5:04 remaining in the middle period, which was 62 seconds after Caps defenseman Vincent Desharnais was seated in the box for a five-minute fighting major after dropping the mitts with Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg. And as Roy was going to the bench, his blueline partner Jakob Chychrun was mixing it up with the Lightning’s Pontus Holmberg, a skirmish that sent both players to the box as a television timeout was being taken.
Late in the second period of a 2-1 hockey game, with two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey on the horizon, Carbery surveyed his bench and saw just three defensemen: Cole Hutson, Timothy Liljegren and Martin Fehervary. Not wanting any of those three defenders to play the full two minutes, Carbery took the television timeout to draft Aliaksei Protas as a fill-in on the back end – an EBUD, if you will – pairing him with Fehervary for the shift coming out of the television timeout.
But why Protas?
“It’s a good question,” Carbery says. “Number one, it’s usually someone who is a little bit defensive minded, so someone that has penalty kill responsibilities – usually – under their belt.
“The second thing is skating ability backwards. One of the requirements of playing defense is backwards skating, and Dubois and him are really good backwards skaters and do it a lot in the neutral zone and on penalty kill forecheck situations. So, those would be the two things that we look for: a defensive mind and someone that's responsible and really smart when it comes to defensive reads, and then an ability to skate backwards.”
Liljegren and Hutson came out for the face-off coming out of the television timeout. Liljegren skated 47 seconds while Hutson stayed out for 64 seconds. Fehervary came out to replace Liljegren and stayed on for 100 seconds; Protas joined him when Hutson came off, and the big forward skated a 74-second shift – his longest of the night – of mostly 4-on-4 hockey.
And to hear Protas tell the story, it’s one of the greatest events of his career to date. The always upbeat forward became positively ebullient in recalling his emergency shift on the blueline.
“I think it ended up being between me and Dubie there, and I just got called up to the [defense] side of the bench, which was a pretty cool experience for sure,” says Big Pro. “And they paired up Hutty with Lily, and I got with Marty because I think he is more defensively responsible, more strongly defensive, which I really needed. And I was so happy to share kind of that experience with him. Yeah, it was one shift, but it's for sure –since joining the Capitals – a special one.”
Of course, we wondered which of the two lefties played on the off side of the A. Protas/Fehervary pairing.
“I ended up playing right side,” Protas recounts. “I asked Marty what he wants because I want him to be at his best so he can at least help me. So, I think I ended up right side.”
And what was it like having such a different point of view of everything happening on the ice at this level?
“Just be careful,” he says, “It's a little different knowing you're the last guy, basically, and behind you is only Chucky [Lindgren]. It's kind of a weird feeling. You’ve got to be always ready, especially at 4-on-4. You get their skilled guys. That’s kind of cool a feeling, but you understand how hard it is. Even one shift, you understand how hard. If you basically make the mistake, there's no one behind you, only Chucky.”
Protas also mentioned that the last time he played defense was with Team Belarus U-17, when he wasn’t playing much. He was on the fourth line, and the coach would deploy him on defense to get him some ice time.
“I didn’t get many minutes, and they put me on [defense] out there, and I played as a defenseman for I think, two months, maybe three months,” he recalls. “But in the U-18 tournament, I went as a forward.”
Big Pro was drafted as a center, and he has mostly played left wing during his NHL career in Washington. But it turns out, he’s got even more versatility than meets the eye, as we learned last Saturday night in Tampa.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets the net today for the Caps, making his third start in as many games on the homestand and his fourth start in five games on the season. According to Money Puck, Thompson has saved 4.9 goals above expected in his three previous starts, ranking fifth in the League at this early juncture.
Lifetime in the month of October, Thompson is 20-5-0 in 25 starts, with a pair of shutouts, a 2.00 GAA and a .926 save pct.
Over the course of his career against the Kraken, Thompson is 4-2-0 in six appearances – all starts – with a shutout, a 2.02 GAA and a .920 save pct.
For the Kraken, Joey Daccord gets the net today, starting for the fourth time in Seattle’s six games to this point of the season. The 30-year-old Boston native is 2-1-0 in his three starts thus far, with a 2.64 GAA and a .911 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Daccord is 1-3-0 in four starts, but with excellent qualitative numbers; he holds a 2.03 GAA and a .922 save pct. in his career against the Caps.
All Down The Line – Here’s how we expect the Caps and the Kraken might look when they take the ice late Sunday afternoon in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
89-Tuch, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
21-A. Protas, 62-I. Protas, 25-Kyrou
22-Jenner, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
Defense
6-Chychrun, 27-Liljegren
42-Fehervary, 73-Desharnais
44-Hutson, 52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Injured/Out
3-Roy (lower body)
38-Sandin (lower body)
Healthy Extras
53-Frank
63-Miroshnichenko
SEATTLE
Forwards
19-McCann, 10-Beniers, 11-Samoskevich
74-McMann, 9-Stephenson, 7-Eberle
84-Kakko, 27-Catton, 51-Wright
59-Meyers, 89-Gaudreau, 26-Winterton
Defense
41-Evans, 62-Montour
29-Dunn, 6-Larsson
28-Mahura,
Goaltenders
35-Daccord
31-Grubauer
Injured/out
55-Lindgren (upper body)
63-Melanson (upper body)
Healthy Extras
8-Fleury
42-Douglas
46-Ottavainen
