Better That We Break – The Caps play their final game ahead of the NHL’s Winter Olympics pause tonight when they host the Nashville Predators at Capital One Arena. The game pits a pair of desperate teams, each of which is four points shy of a playoff berth heading into tonight’s contest.
Tonight’s game is Washington’s 22nd game in a span of 41 nights between the NHL’s holiday break and the League’s pause of nearly three weeks for the Olympic Games. The Capitals and Vegas are the only two teams in the League that played as many as 22 games during that span, and Washington is the only team in the NHL that heads into the break with 59 games played, the most in the circuit to this juncture of the season.
The Caps enter tonight’s game with a 9-10-2 mark between the breaks.
“I’m just focused on Nashville, to be honest with you,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I know that last portion of the season is going to determine our fate. And I obviously know that and understand that and [will be] planning for that when the time comes.
“But [I’m] really still in this segment and finishing it and making sure that we have a really, really quality performance at home tonight against Nashville. And then we head into the break, and then we can take a deep breath, reassess and see where we’re at, but being laser focused on tonight and making sure that we do the necessary things to play well tonight.
I’ve Returned – For the first time since Halloween night when he was sidelined with abdominal injury and subsequent surgery, Caps center P-L Dubois will be back in the Washington lineup tonight. Dubois has played in just six of Washington’s first 58 games this season after playing in all 82 games in his first season as a Capital in 2024-25 and being one of a handful of players who could have been the team’s MVP last season.
“It’s a lot better than knowing I’m going to be watching from upstairs,” says Dubois of his return. “It’s been a long time, a lot of work. The training staff here did an amazing job; I’m extremely grateful for them, teammates, everybody. It’s going to be a fun night.”
There is never a “good” time for an athlete to be injured and miss significant time, but in Dubois’ case, there was at least a significant silver lining to the timing of his injury and subsequent surgery and rehab. His son – he and his wife’s first child – was born earlier in October, just days prior to the injury. Dubois was able to share some precious moments with his growing family while recovering.
“There is no good time to get injured,” says Dubois. “But as to my life away from the rink, it was pretty good timing. Although, for the first month in crutches, my wife was taking care of two babies at home; there wasn’t much movement from me or him. So, it wasn’t the easiest for her, but she did a great job.
“But yeah, to spend time with him, see the first smiles, the first time he wakes up and sees me and starts laughing, those are the kind of moments I’ll cherish forever. But I’m a hockey player. And it will be nice to be back tonight and to see him in the stands.”
With the Olympic break right on the other side of tonight’s game, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Dubois maybe should just wait for Washington’s first game after the break, a Feb. 25 home game against Philadelphia.
“I think from the medical side, and from Pierre-Luc Dubois, number one is he is ready,” says Carbery. “So, that’s the number one box. Why not give him another three weeks? That’s where my head went to as well. The reason why is to get him into a game, and if he’s ready, get him into one game, and he’s got three weeks – two weeks, whatever it is – and he can come back and he’s got over that obstacle or that first game under his belt. And then he can use the break – and he has some plans to utilize that – and then get back to practicing when we return.”
“This was my first time rehabbing something that wasn’t just day-to-day, or just a week or two,” says Dubois. “So, I learned a lot. When you have a longer rehab, typically you have a lot of ups and downs and the downs kind of push you back to later. But like I said, the training staff here did an amazing job. The doctors that did the surgery did a fantastic job. There weren’t really any downs; we were just going up and progressing. And once I got to skating, then it just went from there. But it’s all because of them.”
Dubois has been skating for weeks now. He accompanied the team on its recent six-game, 12-day western road trip and was on the ice most of those dozen days, and he has been spotted working with Washington’s top power play unit since the team returned from that trip, though it should also be stated that the Caps have not had a full team practice at any point since their return, just another by-product of the compressed NHL schedule this season to accommodate the League’s participation in the Olympics.
Dubois did have a full training camp back in September, and as difficult as it is to miss three months of an NHL season and then hop back into action against players that have been playing and practicing continuously over that same span, Dubois may end up being on more or less equal footing when everyone returns from the Olympic break.
“I’ve got a pretty good idea that ‘everything’ is what I need to work on,” says Dubois. “Timing, execution, my cardio, my hands, all these things. As the season goes on, the game progresses; it gets faster and faster as you get out of that offseason training mode and into the games. So, obviously game six when I played to game 59 tonight would be a huge difference, but with these teammates here and the staff that helped me a lot, I’m sure that I can learn a lot and take that break to really hone it in and take those team practices to get as close as I can, and hopefully it’s not a lot of games until I’m back at 100 percent.
“My goal is, I’m going to skate during the break. My goal is that when everybody comes back a little rusty from having beers on the beach, they’ll be a little rusty and I’ll be extremely rusty. But there will be some rust to everybody. And now that I get to play this one game before the break, that will help a lot.”
As badly as he is needed in the Washington lineup right now, the Caps are tempering their expectations.
“I’m going to curb expectations right away,” says Carbery. “He has missed [47 consecutive, 53 total] games, and that’s a lot of games and a long time. So, getting his feet back under him, it’s going to take some time. The timing of it, handling the puck, the nerves of it. Getting him back is a positive step, but there’s no ill-conceived notions of him coming in and putting a cape on and saving the world. It’s going to be a process, him coming back.”
During Dubois’ absence, the Caps played 47 games – most in the NHL across that stretch – and they went a pedestrian 22-18-7. Their .543 point percentage was tied for 20th in the NHL over that span, which shows what a loss his presence has been over the last three months of the season.
Here’s how Carbery saw his contributions from last season; this is from a one-on-one interview with Carbery from late last summer, on Aug. 12.
“On the specifics of what Dubois brought, we knew going into that off season we had to have a center,” said Carbery at that time. “And a lot of people were looking at that move and going, ‘Ooooh,’ and Pierre-Luc had played on a few different teams, the contract, playing one year and now [the Kings] already want to move him, and all those red flags that you hear about. [Brian MacLellan] knew and Chris [Patrick] knew that one of our number one priorities was to add a legit top six center man that could play those minutes, give you a little bit of offensive production, but also play against other top lines, because the challenge that we had is that once we start to get up against those really, really high-end lines, it’s a lot to ask [Nic] Dowd to play 20 minutes against Connor McDavid, [Nathan] MacKinnon, [Auston] Matthews. It’s a lot, and [Dylan Strome] you’d like to deploy in more of those offensive situations. So him playing a defensive zone shift with [Alex Ovechkin] against Auston Matthews would always go to Dowd. We knew we needed another player like a Pierre-Luc Dubois that could alleviate some of those minutes, and to play against [Sasha] Barkov and play against [Brayden] Point and [Nikita] Kucherov.
“And that’s exactly what he did. Right away, from day one, it was a seamless transition for him to play those tough matchups and those tough minutes. And he flourished; he was great. And it’s funny, but his production at the beginning of the year, he was really struggling to finish, and he wasn’t picking up a lot of points, but he was playing great. And that’s what I kept telling him. I was like, ‘Listen, I know you want to produce, and you want to score goals and they’re not going in for you right now and you’re not picking up points, but you’re playing great and we’re winning hockey games.’ And he was playing those hard matchups, which frees Dowder up a little bit, it frees Stromer up, and it has all of these ramifications throughout our lineup that helped us to be successful last year.”
And now, Dubois is back at long last, ready to help the Caps make a push for a playoff berth across their last two dozen games of the season.
“It means a lot to everyone in this room, myself included,” says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. “He’s been a steady centerman for me a lot these last couple of years, and someone that everyone loves to play with. And I think at this point in the season, it’s a huge boost. He’s done a great job of working hard and being a great teammate the last few months, but he’s at his best when he I on the ice and flying around and just being who he is, so we’re really excited to get him back.”
In The Nets – The Caps loaned goaltender Garin Bjorklund to AHL Hershey earlier today, so we are expecting to see Logan Thompson back between the pipes tonight for the first time since Jan. 27 in Seattle when he suffered an upper body injury.
Charlie Lindgren (lower body) remains on injured reserve, but Washington – and every NHL team – must keep two goaltenders on its roster over the break, per CBA regulations, so Clay Stevenson – who was excellent in starting three games in four nights for Washington – remains on the Caps’ roster for now. But it’s possible that – over the Olympic break – the Caps would have a different pair of goaltenders on their roster; they may recall Bjorklund, and loan Stevenson to AHL Hershey.
Thompson – who along with Wilson and Martin Fehervary are headed to Italy to play in the Olympics – will be seeking his 19th victory of the season tonight. Lifetime against Nashville, he is 5-1-0 in six appearances – all starts – with a 2.02 GAA and a .941 save pct.
Nashville played – and lost 6-5 in overtime – at home against Minnesota last night, and Juuse Saros had the net for that game in Music City. We are expecting to see Justus Annunen in net for the Preds tonight; Annunen defeated the Caps 3-2 on Jan. 11 in Nashville, making 30 stops in the process.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Annunen is 1-1-0 with a 3.66 GAA and an .868 save pct. in two appearances, both starts.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Predators might look on Thursday night in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 53-Frank
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier, 34-Sourdif, 9-Leonard
29-Lapierre, 26-Dowd, 22-Duhaime
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
33-Stevenson
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
Injured/Out
15-Milano (personal)
24-McMichael (upper body)
79-Lindgren (lower body)
NASHVILLE
Forwards
9-Forsberg, 90-O’Reilly, 91-Stamkos
58-Bunting, 56-Haula, 77-Evangelista
36-Smith. 47-McCarron, 81-Marchessault
71-Wood, 17-Jost, 89-Wiesblatt
Defensemen
76-Skjei, 59-Josi
83-Wilsby, 48-Perbix
37-Blankenburg, 20-Barron
Goalies
29-Annunen
74-Saros
Healthy Extras
8-Englund
Injured/Out
41-Hague (lower body)
