The Washington Capitals take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight at Capital One Arena. Here’s how to watch the game. The Caps had a good morning skate and Nicklas Backstrom skated with the team for the first time this season in a non contact jersey.
The lines are shuffled around as more Hershey reinforcements arrived. The latest recalls included Michael Sgarbossa and Beck Malenstyn who will be on the fourth line. Here are the top 3 players to keep an eye on tonight.
#3 Aliaksei Protas
This is interesting. On the line rushes, rookie forward Aliaksei Protas was taking rushes on the top line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin. Protas has one assist in eight games and has had an uptick in ice time. While he currently averages 11:03 minutes of ice time he finished with 17:48 minutes of ice time the other night at the Seattle Kraken.
"It's going to be really fun, really great experience for me when you're growing up, watching those guys play and now you're playing with them."
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 24, 2021
Aliaksei Protas discusses practicing on the first line with Ovi and Kuzy at today's morning skate. #CapsHabs | @MedStarHealth pic.twitter.com/GQuMunRKfj
Additionally, Protas was on the top power play unit. He talked about the first line promotion and even joked that he speaks Russian on the ice with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. He also said this:
"“I think it’s gonna be really fun, really great experience for me when you like growing up watching these guys play and then now you’re playing with them. It’s really cool and I can’t wait to get going with these guys.”"