Capitals coach Spencer Carbery explains Aliaksei Protas' role on the man advantage.
PHILADELPHIA — Washington Capitals coach Spencer Carbery doesn't beat around the bush or shy away from admitting it: Aliaksei Protas has earned the chance to get a look on the power play.
He's heard the noise and the feedback, especially amid the Capitals' struggles on the man advantage, which came to a head after giving up back-to-back shorthanded goals on Monday against the Calgary Flames.
"Pro should be on the power play," Carbery said bluntly. "I know everything screams, 'Why is this guy not on the power play?'"
After that second-period collapse at 5-on-4 against the Flames, Carbery tweaked things for the third, putting Protas on the power play. The result? A power-play goal, and the eventual game-winner.
"What does he do? Off the power-play face-off loss, he shoots through and creates a goal," Carbery said. "If he doesn't go in there and create a turnover, they clear that puck 200 feet, we probably don't score that power-play goal. He uses his feet, he wins a puck and then what does he do? He gets a puck off the way to the middle, to (Rasmus Sandin), which creates that goal."
The 26-year-old not only brings that play to the table, but his overall game and identity can both be a promising boost on the man advantage.
"His puck recoveries, his ability to forecheck, not only win those situations but keep a play alive off the yellow, and then the other thing I'll point out is he's been, and he's done an excellent job — as good as anybody — probably the best job we've had at the net front" Carbery said.
However, it remains to be seen if this will be a permanent role for Protas going forward, as Carbery wants to continue to manage his playing time.
"It's just a minute management thing for him, because he's such an effective 5-on-5 player for us because he's such an effective penalty killer for us," Carbery said. "A guy of his size, we've just been very careful managing his minutes of getting him out in power-play situations. Now a guy of his size is playing 22-23 minutes. We just want to be careful with that and make sure that we're managing his minutes.
On Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, Protas is staying on the power play, where he'll operate on the second unit.
"He's a good player, so he's earned an opportunity to get out there," Carbery said.