Capitals play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati talks about the improved play of Capitals youngster Aliaksei Protas this season.
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00:00Obviously, the big story this year for the Caps is Ovi,
00:03and Ovi's story is 1 through 10, probably, right?
00:07Yeah, you're right.
00:09I think the development of Protus, I mean, has been...
00:14Dude, he had six goals last year, and this year he had 30.
00:17The assist numbers jumped too, not as significantly,
00:22but he emerged as possibly an all-star type player, right?
00:28Without a doubt, and it's impressive,
00:30and it's a credit to the workload of the player, the work ethic,
00:34his willingness in the offseason.
00:36He's told me that he and his brother, Elia, who is a Caps draft pick,
00:42who is destroying the Ontario Hockey League right now,
00:44or I'm not sure where they are in the playoffs,
00:46but had a fantastic regular season, and oh, by the way,
00:50I think it's 6'5 1â2".
00:52You're going to see the Protus brothers for a long time in Washington,
00:56knock on wood.
00:56And Alexei will tell you that he and Elia were shooting day after day,
01:01working on drills, finishing shooting ability.
01:04So for the player to put in that effort and work with the coaching staff,
01:10work with the skills coaching staff, Kenny McCudden,
01:14work with all of their options to help make them better,
01:19this is a guy who works his tail off, sunup to sundown.
01:22And to see the improvement, obviously he has what you can't teach at 6'6".
01:29He's NBA small forward-like, amazing.
01:32But you see him, I remember him in development camp a few years ago,
01:37and you're thinking, wow, maybe if, and all of a sudden the skating got better,
01:43and all of a sudden the hockey IQ is improving,
01:46and all of a sudden now the finishing ability is there.
01:48Now you've got a 30-goal power forward at 6'6".
01:52That's a player, man.
01:53And credit to him.
01:56Credit to him.
01:57He never gave up.
01:58He pushed and pushed, a la Tom Wilson.
02:00A lot like Tom Wilson, who you've seen improve over a decade.
02:06Protus is doing that same kind of arc.