ARLINGTON, V.A. — When evaluating Aliaksei and Ilya Protas' play to start the season, Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was careful not to group them together.
After all, while they are siblings, they are different players at different points of their careers, experiencing separate circumstances to start the season.
That said, Carbery took the time to evaluate both, and started with Ilya, saying that it's not fair to truly rate the rookie's start considering he's still getting used to the NHL and what it has to offer.
"This is hard. I know everybody's excited about him. I'm excited about him, just like our fan base is, just like management is, just like everybody that sees the type of potential he has. But he's playing his first NHL season as a centerman that's playing on a team that is not rebuilding," Carbery said. "Key point: not rebuilding, and expecting him to make all the right decisions and right plays on a winning team. It's not an easy scenario."
"So, even though we saw great things at the end of last year, this is it's a lot for him, and he's working, and he's coachable, and he's trying to get better, and so I think he's been he's been solid given the circumstances. And to think that he was going to come in here and be a point a game and be lighting up the score sheet, I just think is completely unrealistic."
Through seven games so far, Ilya has four assists and a plus/minus of minus-1, while also logging time on the second power play unit.
He shifted lines after struggling to get much going on his original line out of camp with his brother, and is now playing with Alex Ovechkin and Ivan Mirohsnichenko, who replaced Ethen Frank in the lineup amid Pierre-Luc Dubois' ongoing absence due to illness and line shuffling.
For Carbery, he believes Ilya will continue to improve with time, but he hasn't necessarily been disappointed with what he's seen so far. Instead, it's typical of what he'd expect with a rookie.
"I think he's been solid," Carbery added.
Meanwhile, older brother Aliaksei, has gotten off to a bit of a slower start.
Through seven games, Aliaksei has two assists and a plus/minus rating of minus-2. He's been moved to a line with Tom Wilson and Boone Jenner, and Carbery is hoping that'll help spark some more production and improvement.
"I think playing with his brother for the first six games and trying to help him, just didn't feel like like the chemistry — and it's crazy to say that because they're brothers, and you go like the chemistry should be incredible there — but it just it wasn't. I don't feel like we were getting the most out of Big Pro, and whether it was line combination, whatever, so moving him, I thought he was good last game," Carbery said.
Ultimately, though, Carbery rated his play so far as "inconsistent" and believes that Aliaksei, regardless, has more to give, and like his brother, will get into a rhythm eventually.
"I've liked parts of his game through the first (seven games). Do I think he's been the best version of Pro in the first seven games? No. Do I think he's got more there? Absolutely," Carbery said. "I think he's had some good games and some not so good games."
