Capitals center Pierre-Luc Dubois will not play tonight against the Lightning due to a lower-body injury, head coach Spencer Carbery confirmed (via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News). He’s listed as day-to-day and has not landed on injured reserve.
If he does, the Caps will be able to backdate his placement to Oct. 12. He left Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Rangers late in the third period for something that required additional evaluation, Carbery said, but it’s not clear when he sustained the injury. If the Caps create a roster spot by placing him on IR, he would be ruled out for Washington’s next two games, including tonight’s, before being eligible for activation against the Canucks on Oct. 19. They have ample cap space to make a recall if they do so, a likely scenario given they don’t have an extra healthy forward with him sidelined.
Dubois began the season in the spot where he enjoyed much success last year – anchoring the Caps’ second line between Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. In their three-game sample size, though, their two-way play has trailed off a bit from 2024-25. While the trio has outscored opponents 3-0 at even strength and won the Corsi battle 31-29, they’ve only controlled 41.9% of expected goals – the lowest quality share among Washington’s forward lines so far, according to MoneyPuck. As for Dubois individually, he’s still looking for his first point of the year but has a +1 rating while averaging 17:22 per game and going 15-for-41 on faceoffs for a 36.6% win rate. Last year, he had two points through his first three games en route to his career-high 46 assists and 66 points.
Connor McMichael is a natural choice to step down and shift back to center after spending time as their top-line right wing with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome to begin the year. That’s exactly what the Caps will go with, at least for tonight, according to Silber. Hendrix Lapierre, who was scratched Sunday after appearing in Washington’s first two games, will re-enter the lineup as the Caps’ lone healthy extra and will do so as the third-line anchor between Ryan Leonard and Sonny Milano. The latter practiced in Dubois’ spot on Washington’s top power play unit this morning as well.