Dubois boosting Capitals since return, aiming for playoff push

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Pierre-Luc Dubois began this season hoping to build on his highly successful first season with the Washington Capitals.

After having those plans derailed by abdominal and adductor muscle injuries that required surgery and sidelined him for more than three months, Dubois is determined to make the most of what is left of the season. Heading into Washington’s trip to face the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET; ABC, SN1, TVAS), the 27-year-old center is off to a good start with six points (four goals, two assists) in five games since returning.

“I feel good,” Dubois said Thursday. “I feel like my legs are there, a lot of parts of my game are there. I think there’s some reads maybe without the puck that are still a lot faster than Game 6 of the season. … I guess you could say that's the piece that's missing of my game.”

That should come with more game reps, but the clock is ticking. Washington (31-25-7) has only 19 games remaining and trails Boston (34-22-5) by four points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, making a win Saturday nearly essential to its sagging postseason hopes.

The Capitals traded center Nic Dowd to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday for goalie prospect Jesper Vikman, a second-round pick in the 2029 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, then traded defenseman John Carlson to the Anaheim Ducks early Friday for a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 draft. Washington still could unload more players before the NHL Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, but Dubois’ focus remains on trying to qualify for the playoffs. 

“Just to finish out this season, it’s tough to have my head anywhere but making a playoff push,” he said. “Obviously, individually, everybody wants to play well, but you know the position we're in. We have to make the playoffs, and we're really all pushing towards that.”

Washington might not be in this tenuous position if Dubois had been healthy all season. He didn’t miss a game last season, his first with the Capitals after being acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings for goalie Darcy Kuemper on June 19, 2024, and set NHL career highs with 66 points, 46 assists and a plus-27 rating to help them finish first in the Eastern Conference with 111 points before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs. 

“For me individually, last year was a great year, and it was a great year for the team,” Dubois said. “Obviously, you lose (in the playoffs), but only one team wins. I've never thought that you can judge success just off if you win the Cup or not. Then, for this year, for me, it was just to take a step up on last year, and I think for the team it was the same thing. 

“Obviously, not playing three or four months of the season, it’s tough to take a step up.”

Dubois said his injury problems began before the regular season started.

“It was one of those things where you just come in one morning and my groin felt off,” he said. “You don't think anything of it. As a hockey player, you never really feel great. And then it just kind of lingered.”

Dubois played the first three games before sitting out the next five in hope that the time off would help him heal. He returned against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 25 but lasted only three more games before New York Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau fell on him during a face-off in the first period of a 3-1 Capitals loss on Oct. 31.

“Pageau fell on me right where I was hurt,” Dubois said “It was just the perfect storm.”

After Dubois had surgery on Nov. 7, the prognosis was for him to miss 3-4 months. He worked hard to make it back for Washington’s final game before the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 against the Nashville Predators on Feb. 5. Stepping back into his usual spot on a line between Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson, Dubois had a goal and an assist and played 17:35 to help the Capitals win 4-2.

As rusty as he felt after missing 47 games, that one game gave him a good idea of what he needed to work on to get up to full speed when the season resumed. He put the break to good use, working in the mornings with former Capitals coach and forward Adam Oates, now a skills coach, at a rink in Palm Springs, Florida, while vacationing near there.

“I think timing-wise it was perfect to get that first game going into the break and kind of seeing where I'm at and then skating while everybody's relaxing on the beach,” he said. “Having that mix of, ‘Oh, I also get to relax, but I also get to work in the morning,’ that helped. And then also coming back here and having six, seven practices with the whole squad, those two things, I think, helped a lot.”

Dubois has continued to build his game since break. He had two goals and an assist in a 3-2 victory against the Golden Knights on Feb. 27 and scored another goal in a 3-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday. 

“He was tirelessly working, even behind the scenes, and what he did over the break of skating, continuing to push,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Even though he already had the game under his belt and 100-whatever rehab skates under his belt, he still felt like he needed to do some more work over the break. So, he put the necessary work in and then some to prepare himself for when games resumed, and he's reaping the rewards.”

Having been through a lot already during his nine seasons in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Winnipeg Jets, Kings and Capitals, Dubois viewed the time he missed as another learning experience. It also gave him some unexpected downtime during the season to spend with his infant son, who was born in October.  

“This is the first time in my life I got injured where I missed a significant amount of time, so I learned a lot,” he said. “Obviously, I want to be on the ice, but life experiences, I think, also make you a better person and more well-rounded. And I learned a lot.”