{"id":564614,"date":"2026-04-04T18:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564614\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:41:09","slug":"aliaksei-protas-to-return-capitals-to-make-changes-to-forward-lines-for-sabres-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564614\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliaksei Protas to return, Capitals to make changes to forward lines for Sabres game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals got a sight for sore eyes as Aliaksei Protas<\/a> was a full participant in the team\u2019s morning skate on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Protas has missed the past two games due to the upper-body injury he suffered in a brutal headfirst collision with Nic Dowd last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no great time for injuries, but especially now when we\u2019re fighting for our lives,\u201d Protas said. \u201cYou want to be there with the boys, and you want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old winger hasn\u2019t skated with his teammates since getting hurt, but was immediately back on the club\u2019s top line ahead of their matchup with the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n

Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters after the skate that Protas is \u201cgood to go\u201d for Saturday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a huge part of our team, five-on-five, penalty kill, so a welcome addition,\u201d Carbery said.<\/p>\n

While Protas was on the ice for the optional practice, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin<\/a> and defenseman Jakob Chychrun<\/a> were not.<\/p>\n

Ivan Miroshnichenko<\/a> appeared to be filling in as Ovechkin\u2019s placeholder on the top trio with Protas and Dylan Strome<\/a>. Timothy Liljegren<\/a> also subbed in for Chychrun.<\/p>\n

Projected Capitals lines for 4\/4 game against Sabres<\/p>\n

Beauvillier\n <\/p>\n

Sourdif\n <\/p>\n

Leonard\n <\/p>\n

Outside of Protas being back, the same could be said for winger Ethen Frank<\/a>. The speedy forward has sat out as a healthy scratch for the past two games, but looks to be receiving a jersey in favor of trade-deadline acquisition David Kampf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frank was previously out injured after suffering a lower-body injury against the Colorado Avalanche on March 22<\/a>. He looks slated to play on a fourth line also featuring Hendrix Lapierre<\/a> and Brandon Duhaime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In net, the Capitals are going right back to number-one starter Logan Thompson<\/a>, despite Thompson allowing six goals to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. Charlie Lindgren<\/a> has not played for the Caps since March 12, which was a 2-1 victory over the Sabres.<\/p>\n

The Sabres come into Saturday night\u2019s game winners of six of their last 10 games and second in the Atlantic Division. They fell in their last game, 4-1, to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals got a sight for sore eyes as Aliaksei Protas was a full participant in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-564614","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\/564614","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=564614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}