WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington Capitals bent but did not break against the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday night thanks in large part to the work of Pierre-Luc Dubois. In one of his best games of the season, Dubois scored both of Washington’s goals in the 2-1 victory, potting one in the first period and ending the game in overtime.
“Dubie was a beast today,” head coach Spencer Carbery said postgame. “He was really good.”
Dubois’ first goal of the night came shortly before the first intermission. After Tom Wilson sent a shot on Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen, Dubois caught the rebound, batted it to the ice, carried it to the other side of the crease, and backhanded it in.
The Canucks evened the score late in the second period and neither team scored in the third, sending the Capitals to overtime for the third time in four games. But while the Capitals’ last two extended games ended with an unsuccessful shootout, Dubois played the hero against Vancouver, picking up a pass from Aliaksei Protas with plenty of space before beating Lankinen for the win.
Dubois highlighted Protas for both his overall talent and his work on the game-winning play during an interview with Sportsnet after the victory.
“For the people that don’t know him or are familiar with his game, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve played with,” he said. “He’s got arms that are seven feet long with a stick that’s six feet long. He can pass the puck, he can shoot it, he can score. He does it all out there. Playing with him has been really fun and that was a really nice play by him out there.”
Even outside of the scoresheet, Dubois’ physicality helped fire up the team. His night started with a bang when his hook on Quinn Hughes helped instigate a major scuffle 4:19 into the first period. By the time the dust cleared, Dubois had taken a second penalty on Hughes, this time taking a swipe at him as the fracas came to the close, and officials sent five total players to the box to give the Canucks a four-minute power play.
“It was fun,” Dubois said of the high-energy game. “Those games, in an 82-game season, they don’t happen often. It’s a long year. Emotional games like that, physical games where both teams are playing hard and teams are defending well, not getting much out there, it’s fun and it’s a little extra when you can get a win.”
Carbery credited that dust-up, as well as the Capitals’ subsequent kill of the double-minor, as a major momentum boost for the team — to the point that he wasn’t upset Dubois took those penalties in the first place
“As crazy as this sounds, I don’t even mind the four minute penalty,” he said. “Because you could tell — obviously it’s not a great situation to have to kill that early in a game — but with Hughes being in the box, that helped a little bit to keep him off the ice and off their first unit power play.
“But [Dubois] being into the game and getting everybody in, and now all of a sudden we’ve got guys really engaged in the game, I didn’t mind. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world. The four men then to get through the kill was important. But it got us really ready to go and he was leading the charge.”
Dubois’ line with Protas and Connor McMichael proved fairly successful against Vancouver: they out-chanced the Canucks 9-5 and had a 4-3 advantage in high-danger chances at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
Though Wednesday marked Dubois’ first multi-goal game of the season, he’s quietly become one of the Capitals’ strongest players. He’s racked up 11 points (2g, 9a) in his last 10 games and ranks third on the Capitals in scoring this season with 33 points (7g, 26a) in 41 games. And after Thursday night, he can add his first overtime game-winner with the Capitals to that list of accolades.
