Aliaksei Protas was involved in an unfortunate collision with former Washington Capitals teammate Nic Dowd during a recent game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The head-on-head contact left Dowd bleeding profusely from a cut just above his eyebrow, but he was ultimately able to return to the game. Protas wasn’t as lucky, missing the rest of the game and the next two Capitals games due to an upper-body injury.
Protas skated with his teammates for the first time since the collision on Saturday morning and informed the media that he had checked in with Dowd after the painful incident.
“I texted him, like, next day,” Protas said. “He sent me a couple pictures. Didn’t look great from him, so he also got it pretty good. But good for him coming back to that game. I think he’s feeling way better now in terms of how the face looks.”
Protas also went over the play again, expressing some discontent that Golden Knights defenseman Jeremy Lauzon likely caused his injury with some unnecessary contact.
“I feel like we were supposed to be fine,” Protas said. “We were both kind of slowing down on that play, but the push from the D kind of caught me off guard. I don’t think it was really needed from him, so I didn’t expect that coming from behind. That’s what pushed me kind of forward and caused the big collision. I think we were supposed to be fine, but it is what it is.”
The Capitals won the first of the two games Protas missed, but dropped the second, 7-3, to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. The inopportune loss, to a team behind them in the Eastern Conference standings, cut their playoff qualification percentage odds back into the single digits.
“I mean, there’s no great time for injuries, for sure,” Protas said. “But, yeah, especially right now when we fight for our lives. “Sure, you want to be there with the boys. You want to help. It is what it is.”
Protas appears ready to jump back into the fray on Saturday night, as Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery listed him as “good to go” against the Buffalo Sabres. While his bench boss was seemingly sure, Protas himself didn’t entirely commit to being in the team’s lineup just yet.
“Feeling great,” Protas said. “I don’t think it’s been that bad. It’s more just like the fact of the head, but yeah, I needed to stay off a little bit. Feeling good, and we’ll see how the afternoon goes. Feeling great so far, and we’ll see what’s gonna happen.”
Protas skated on the Capitals’ top line with Dylan Strome and Ivan Miroshnichenko at Saturday’s optional practice. Miroshnichenko was acting as a placeholder for captain Alex Ovechkin, who did not skate, but will play against the Sabres.