It could have turned out to be the night when Aliaksei Protas became the Washington Capitals’ savior. Instead, the Carolina Hurricanes poured a bucket of cold water on all the anticipation. Naturally, the Caps’ 24-year-old center couldn’t be more gutted.

In Game 1 between the Caps and the Canes of the second round of the 2025 playoffs, Aliaksei Protas opened the scoring when his clean shot found the visitors’ net, beating Carolina’s Frederik Andersen. It was the first-ever career postseason goal by the Belarusian national, and his teammates didn’t fail to celebrate the moment with thunderous jubilation. And yet, the ecstatic feeling soon changed as Carolina ran away with the game with a 2-1 OT win. Aliaksei was, for obvious reasons, left with a long face.

In an X post by the official Washington Capitals’ account, Aliaksei Protas was heard talking about how things unfolded at the Capital One Arena tonight. In the post-game interview, Protas flatly said, “The way we played tonight, I don’t think it was good enough to win“. This was Aliaksei’s first action after a skate injury kept him off the ice for 10 games straight. Understandably, being handed a defeat upon his return was a tough pill to swallow.

“We know what team we are facing, that they’re a hard team, they’re tough to play against. But I don’t think, I think it started from us today. We weren’t good enough in the D-zone, breakouts, and as a result couldn’t connect to the O-zone,” Aliaksei went on to highlight how it was a poor performance on the ice by the Caps tonight. But being the seasoned athlete he is, Protas knows there’s a long way to go before the best-of-seven-game series concludes. “Frustrating, but we know we’ll get better,” Aliaksei Protas said, with gleaming eyes.

Protas’ early lead was taken away in the third period when Logan Stankoven beat Washington’s Logan Thompson to the net after a bad turnaround. Ultimately, it was Jaccob Slavin‘s seeing-eye shot from the right point that brought an end to Aliaksei & Co.’s fight. By the end of the night, the Canes led the Caps 33-14 in terms of shots on goal.

Fans had noted their frustration on social media about how Washington looked like a team without coordination, and Protas, in his post-game interview, voiced a similar perspective. “It starts from the D zone, first of all, and put the puck in the good spots, and be on the same page together, and I don’t think we were today,” Aliaksei said. Similar thoughts were echoed by Dylan Strome as well, who said, “We didn’t play our style of hockey tonight. We kind of let them dictate the game.”

Onward and upward, though. The action will resume with Game 2 on Thursday at the Capital One Arena, and Spencer Carbery’s boys can only hope to pull back after falling behind. But rest assured, it won’t be an easy feat.

Can Aliaksei Protas and the boys turn things around?

The Washington team finished the regular season at the top of the division with 111 points and even clinched the top seed in the Conference. With 99 points, the Canes finished just below them. In the 2024-25 regular season, the Caps and the Canes met four times, with both winning two games each. Naturally, it would make it seem like both these squads had pretty good knowledge about each other’s advantages and weaknesses ahead of their playoff clash.

“When you prepare to play against good teams, it’s actually easy to prepare,” the Hurricanes’ coach, Rod Brind’Amour, said on Thursday. Aliaksei Protas’ boss, Spencer Carbery, also said things in a similar vein: “We just know the ins and outs of a lot of their systems because we play the same thing.” But tonight, it seemed like the Hurricanes had more info on their opponents than vice versa.

“I thought our guys played hard every shift, right from the start of the game. I liked how we were playing,” Rod said with pride after the game. But knowing the depth the Caps boast, one would speculate they won’t be conceding the series without a fight. From Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, to Jakob Chychrun, there are a lot of players in the roster who can turn the tide of a game at any point, and coach Spencer Carbery is confident that they’ll “regroup” and “get ready for game two.” And while home ice advantage didn’t work in their favor in Game 1, they’ll be able to sleep better thinking that they’ll have a chance to level the series at the Capital One Arena.