{"id":506140,"date":"2026-01-10T12:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506140\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:40:18","slug":"aliaksei-protas-will-be-a-game-time-decision-against-the-blackhawks-declan-chisholm-to-replace-dylan-mcilrath-on-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506140\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliaksei Protas will be a game-time decision against the Blackhawks, Declan Chisholm to replace Dylan McIlrath on defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aliaksei Protas<\/strong>\u00a0looks to be ready for a return to the Washington Capitals\u2019 lineup after a three-game absence with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n

Caps head coach Spencer Carbery labeled Protas a game-time decision ahead of the team\u2019s game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. The Belarusian winger was again a full participant in the team\u2019s morning skate, and Carbery previously hinted that both Protas and Tom Wilson could dress on the current two-game road trip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll find out [if Protas is good to go],\u201d Carbery said pregame<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ll find out this afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protas was injured against the Ottawa Senators on January 1<\/a> after defenseman Artem Zub tripped him, sending him careening into the boards feet first. The Capitals have removed the 25-year-old forward from injured reserve, swapping him with Wilson, who is now on IR retroactively.<\/p>\n

Wilson will not be ready in time to play in Chicago, as he has not taken contact in practice since suffering his injury last weekend. However, the 31-year-old winger did join his teammates for the morning skate, which was a step forward in his return progress as he had previously been coming off the ice before drills began.<\/p>\n

Outside of Protas\u2019s likely inclusion, the Capitals will also be making a change on defense. According to the Washington Post\u2019s Bailey Johnson<\/a>, Declan Chisholm will get a sweater for the first time since December 23, as Dylan McIlrath, who played just 6:07 of ice time on Wednesday, returns to the press box.<\/p>\n

After injury scares at practice on Thursday<\/a>, both Jakob Chychrun and Justin Sourdif will also be good to go on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Projected Capitals lineup for 1\/9 game against Blackhawks<\/p>\n

McMichael<\/p>\n

Sourdif<\/p>\n

Leonard<\/p>\n

Logan Thompson will get the start in net for the Capitals, coming off a 32-save loss to the Dallas Stars. Thompson has just one win in his last seven starts, going 0-2-1 in January with a 2.99 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks, riding a four-game winning streak, will get superstar center Connor Bedard back from injury for the game<\/a>. Bedard has 44 points (19g, 25a) in 31 games this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aliaksei Protas\u00a0looks to be ready for a return to the Washington Capitals\u2019 lineup after a three-game absence with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":378121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-506140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115870859086462989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}