{"id":386981,"date":"2026-01-04T08:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386981\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:13:11","slug":"aliaksei-protas-misses-capitals-game-against-blackhawks-due-to-lower-body-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386981\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliaksei Protas misses Capitals game against Blackhawks due to lower-body injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/file-aliaksei-protas-warmups-aland-1105.jpg\" class=\"above-the-fold wp-post-image\" alt=\"Aliaksei Protas\" decoding=\"async\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Capitals will be without key forward Aliaksei Protas against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>Protas will miss out due to a lower-body injury. The team announced the news just ahead of the 7 pm puck drop at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Caps?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#Caps<\/a> forward Aliaksei Protas (lower body) is out for tonight\u2019s game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CapitalsPR\/status\/2007597526946590785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Protas comes out of the lineup after he missed some of Washington\u2019s loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, after Senators defenseman Artem Zub sent him crashing into the boards with a dangerous trip in Thursday\u2019s first period. The Belarusian winger went skates-first into the boards and was very slow to get up.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old forward did return to the game and skated 14:55 of total ice time in the 4-3 defeat. He scored his 16th goal of the season to tie the game 3-3 with 4:07 remaining in the third period.<\/p>\n<p>After picking up a deft feed from Justin Sourdif in the high slot, Protas beat goaltender Leevi Merilainen high to the glove side.<\/p>\n<p>Capitals\u2019 1\/3 lineup against Blackhawks without Aliaksei Protas<\/p>\n<p>Ovechkin<\/p>\n<p>Strome<\/p>\n<p>Beauvillier<\/p>\n<p>Sourdif, <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/01\/03\/justin-sourdif-misses-morning-skate-game-time-decision-capitals-blackhawks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who missed the morning skate and was a game-time decision<\/a>, will center Washington\u2019s second line against Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Protas has 31 points (16g, 15a) in 41 games this season. He has six goals and 11 points in his last eight games.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: Alan Dobbins\/RMNB The Washington Capitals will be without key forward Aliaksei Protas against the Chicago Blackhawks on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-386981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}