The Capitals played 58 games coming into last night’s matchup with the Predators; all but six of those had been played without Pierre-Luc Dubois, who missed more than three months recovering from abdominal and adductor muscle surgery suffered on Halloween.
Last night, Dubois reminded all of us how much of an impact he can have on the lineup when healthy – and he did it almost right away.
Dubois first picked up an assist on the team’s opening tally, deflecting a Jakob Chychrun pass from behind the net and redirecting it to Tom Wilson, who then fired the puck past Justus Annunen and a giant screen named Aliaksei Protas:
Intentional? Probably not, but a nice way to get his legs under him and get his first point of the season. About eight minutes later, it was Dubois again making his presence known – this time with a goal, on the power play, cashing in on a kind of ridiculous pass through two defenders from Dylan Strome:
Two goals by Jakob Chychrun would provide the winning margin for the Caps, and Logan Thompson would stand tall and then some in net to ensure that four goals would be more than enough, giving the team a crucial victory before the break.
It’s been a long road back for Dubois, and while the team has been treading water without him, it’s a huge boost to their playoff hopes to get him back – and a huge positive that he’s already producing. Was he perfect in his return? No, and neither was the team, as at times they seemed to be eyeing their upcoming vacation rather than a resurgent Preds team in front of them. But the most important part was that they got the win, and now get a couple of weeks off to relax, root on their Olympians, and gear up for what we all hope will be a successful push for the postseason.