The Washington Capitals as a whole did not play well against the Vancouver Canucks last night. However, there were a few guys who did play well that led Washington to an overtime victory that, quite frankly, seemed improbable most of the night. Logan Thompson was stellar in net, saving 30 of 31 Vancouver shots on goal and getting the Caps out of a few sticky situations. The honor of first star, however, has to go to the only Capital who found the back of the net last night: Pierre-Luc Dubois. His late first period goal (yay for nuggets!) got the scoring started, and it was his overtime goal that ended it. Let’s unpack how that second one went down.
PLD might have scored the overtime game-winner, but it was actually Aliaksei Protas who made it happen. He drew all three Canucks skaters towards him when he looped behind the net, leaving Dubois with all the space in the world to take his time and shoot his shot.
Dubois had just jumped onto the ice, so he was entering the zone when Protas spotted him. Protas timed his pass perfectly, getting the puck right on PLD’s stick without PLD breaking his stride. He stayed in motion while loading up his shot and firing the puck bar down past Kevin Lankinen, putting a bow on the beautiful play. Even Dubois credited Protas with the game-winner. “That was just all Pro,” Dubois said after the game. “I just had to come down and score. [Lars Eller] gave me a really good look before, and I missed that one. It was a really nice play by Pro.”
A really nice play indeed, PLD, and exactly what the Caps needed to put this game to bed. Also, in case the goal visualizer doesn’t paint the full picture of just how open Dubois was, this should help: