For a team that has been weak in the middle, especially since Washington Capitals center Pierre-Luc Dubois was injured in October, getting him back the last game before the Olympic break was a big boost to the Caps.
While all the talk was about potential trades coming into the nation’s capital before the trade freeze Wednesday, Dubois came back to the lineup with a flourish Thursday night at Capital One Arena, scoring his first goal of the season and adding an assist to help the team’s two-way effort in a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators.
The win helped Washington, who had gone nearly two months without back-to-back wins, head into the break with a 5-2-1 run to remain four points off the playoff pace, and with 29 games left to try and narrow the gap and qualify for the postseason for the third straight season.
“It felt good,” Dubois said afterwards. “I felt very rusty, I got a lot better to give. Just to be back out there with those guys. I’ve been sacrificing so much the last 50, 59 games just to be back out there with them, helping talking me, talking me through it.
“We got a special group here, and I felt it again tonight.”
Considerable ice time in first game back
Despite being out of the lineup since Halloween, he skated 23 shifts against the Predators, with 17:35 time on ice.
“There was a few times I thought I might throw up,” he joked afterwards.
“I wouldn’t say nervous but watching [Dubois] early, because you just don’t know,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of his play. “You miss that much time and put him out with [Aliaksei Protas] and [Tom Wilson] and putting him out there in the Forsberg and Josi matchup. … I thought he was excellent right from the start. That was encouraging right away to feel comfortable to just employ [him] just like any other game.
“We talked at length about what he means to our team and the role that he plays and all the things that he brings and how important to our group. It’s a huge boost to have him back.”
Two-way presence
“I just think he’s a really good two-way center for us,” defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “You see the difference it makes for [Protas] and [Wilson] were playing with him. It seems like he really settles those guys defensively and he’s able and seems like they’re in the [offensive] zone a lot because he’s just very smart.
“I enjoy with playing with him a lot and he’s making plays all night. When he’s out there I try to get open, and he always seems to find the open guy.”
“He’s a big part of this team,” goaltender Logan Thompson said. “Even when he’s not scoring goals he’s shutting down their top line. I think you really notice today how much we missed him. It’s huge for him to get that goal, and he can enjoy two or three weeks off and come back ready to go.”
As teams will spend the next three weeks pondering their future plans, Washington seems to have found its legs it had in the first quarter of the season that found them atop the Eastern Conference standings. While no trades will be allowed while the players are on break, certainly there will be discussions and teams will decide if they will try and make a run for the playoffs or plan for future seasons.
“Coming back from break is going to be the playoff race, it happens every year,” Dubois said. “Sometimes you’re at the top of the league like last year, and sometimes you’re fighting.”
Capitals have little margin for error
Carbery knows the Capitals, who enter the break with 65 points and currently on pace for 90, will need a strong finish after the break to keep on playing into late April. And after a stretch that sees them having played the most games so far this season, the break is welcome.
“It’s been a grind,” Carbery said. “Just the way the season’s gone with injuries and trying to find each and every night … We’ve got 23 games left. We have to figure how we are going to do this. It’s going to take a pretty big push.
“I’m not a huge projector of what you’re going to need to get in, but with the way the things look in the East and our division, I saw someone say the other day, I don’t think it’s out of the realm that you’re going to need 100 points. I know that’s crazy … if you do the math, 23 games, you have to win a lot of hockey games.”
Washington would need 35 points in 23 games, so a 17-5-1 finish would be needed for the century mark, but their current pace would have them just off the playoff cut line the past two seasons.
But with Dubois back and presumably another addition coming before the trade deadline, Washington’s playoff forecast looks a bit rosier than it did eight days ago as they hope to regain the form that had them a strong contender early on.
