Silbsy's Corner: Ilya Protas Dominates On Day 4 Of Capitals Camp, Scrimmage Recap, Ovechkin Update & More Notes
The Capitals not playing in the preseason opener got to work in a high-intensity scrimmage.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Although a handful of the Washington Capitals are headed up to Beantown to take on the Boston Bruins in their preseason opener, training camp was still a full-go on Sunday with the rest of the roster taking part in an inter-squad scrimmage.
The only players that didn’t participate were Alex Ovechkin, who remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury (precautionary), along with Martin Fehervary and Justin Sourdif, who did skills work with Kenny McCudden instead.
It was a high-intensity showdown between Team Red and Team White featuring referees, linesmen and three 20-minute periods, with the first two periods being 5-on-5 and the last period being split into 4-on-4 and 3-on-3.
For players not suiting up on Sunday, it was a critical time for several Capitals hopefuls to step up and show what they can do — and a handful of them wasted no time.
Standing out the most was Ilya Protas for Team Red. The younger brother of Aliaksei was playing center and got a good amount of ice time, and he made the most of it. Ilya was taking great care of the puck, playing a smart two-way game and using his size and speed to his advantage while helping generate high-danger chances and getting to the net front. He ended up scoring twice.
Brother Aliaksei, not to be one-upped, also put home two goals and picked up an assist skating on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Ryan Leonard, who also got on the board for Team Red.
Louie Belpedio also got on the board with a nice bardown goal near the end of regulation, and was a constant physical presence who went straight into board battles and didn’t shy away from throwing his weight around or jumping up in the play, either.
Clay Stevenson was the other star of the scrimmage for Team Red, stopping every shot faced in the first half of the game while he was in net. His lateral movement and rebound control have improved, as has his puck-tracking and glove hand. Promising to see.
Honorable mentions on Team Red: David Guccardi was skating well and moved the puck effectively up ice, Cam Allen got some good looks and 6-foot-8 Miroslav Satan Jr. had some good puck touches, too.
On Team White, Andrew Cristall, skating on a line with Dylan Strome and Sheldon Rempal, opened the scoring on a tap-in after getting to the net front. Later on, Aaron Ness fired a rocket from the point to get his team back in it, and Strome scored on a penalty shot to make things interesting. Finally, at the buzzer, Rempal unleashed a wicked shot that ended up counting for a 6-4 final score.
Cristall got a handful of chances and showcased his shot and vision, and Rempal was also one of the more impressive forwards as he battled hard for the puck and moved it well up ice. Also standing out for Team White: Ludwig Persson, who got a handful of chances and skated with Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
Both teams closed things out with a shootout competition, where Leonard and Tom Wilson scored for their respective clubs, and then sprints. Team White had to do extra full-length sprints after dropping the scrimmage.