- Ilya Protas iced the puck and lost two faceoffs on his 17-second first NHL shift
- He took the opening draw lined up next to his brother Aliaksei and Alex Ovechkin
- Read below for what Ovechkin said when Protas got back to the bench
Ilya Protas could not have scripted a worse first shift in the NHL.
The Capitals rookie made his debut April 8 against Toronto, and Spencer Carbery sent him out to start the game between his older brother Aliaksei and Alex Ovechkin. Seventeen seconds later, Protas had lost a faceoff to John Tavares and iced the puck. When he skated back to the bench, the captain was waiting.
Protas relived the moment in a Russian-language interview with BetNews alongside Aliaksei, and he remembered exactly what Ovechkin said.
“I came back to the bench,” Protas said, as translated. “He goes, ‘What happened? Nervous?’ I said, ‘Yeah, a little bit.’”
Here are the brothers telling the story:
He knew he was in trouble before the puck even dropped. Dylan Strome had warned him about Tavares in the circle.
“I skate out, look around, everyone’s lined up,” Protas said. “I look over: Lyokha on my right. Alexander Mikhailovich beside him. Then I look across and see Tavares taking the faceoff. Dylan Strome reminded me before the game, ‘That guy was second in the league on faceoffs.’ I said, ‘Well, this should be interesting.’”
Tavares won the draw clean. Then Protas iced the puck, blanking on the rule in the moment.
“I completely forgot that rule existed, just nerves,” he said. “Losing the draw and icing the puck, pretty ideal way to start your debut.”
Watch Protas line up for that first draw against Tavares:
It got better from there. Protas settled into the top six, drew power play time, and closed the night with 15:37 of ice time, his first career point, and a 6-8 mark in the faceoff circle.
Washington had built the night up as a family affair, with Protas slotted between Aliaksei and Tom Wilson on a 673-pound line.
Three more NHL games followed before he returned to Hershey, where Protas won AHL Rookie of the Year. He will push for a full-time Capitals job at training camp in the fall.
