The Washington Capitals have dropped four straight games, and got more bad news on Monday. Pierre-Luc Dubois has already missed time with an injury, and it looks like he will be missing more time this year. Dubois will be out for an extended period of time, according to Coach Spencer Carbery, as reported by Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network.
“It’s a huge hole. Arguably right up there last year with one of most valuable and most important players on our roster. I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat it and say that you can replace him at this point in the year. But you can still can be a good hockey team and win a lot of hockey games with injuries. That’s part of the attrition that you need to be able to handle in this league. So that’s what we’ll focus on—he’s out now and now we’ll need other players to step up,” Carbery told the media on Monday, addressing the Dubois injury, per El-Bashir.
The Capitals forward was injured during a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday night. During the first period, he was cross-checked by Jean-Gabriel Pageau and fell awkwardly, leaving the game after the hit. He did not return to the game. Dubois then missed the 4-3 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
There has not been a timetable given for the return of Dubois. Further testing will be necessary to determine if surgery is required to repair the injury.
He was playing on the second line alongside Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. The left winger was averaging 15:32 of ice time per game this year, but did not have a point yet this season. Connor McMichael is expected to replace Dubois on the second line for the foreseeable future.
The Capitals are now 6-5-1 on the season and will return to the ice on Wednesday, hosting the St. Louis Blues.
