Pierre-Luc Dubois didn’t last long with the Los Angeles Kings. Just one season into his eight-year contract, he was traded to the Washington Capitals last June for goalie Darcy Kuemper.
Dubois will make his first return to Los Angeles when the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals, who have won five in a row, visit the Kings on Thursday night.
Kings fans may not have lasting memories of Dubois’ time in Los Angeles, but he hasn’t looked back either, instead settling in nicely with one of the NHL’s best teams.
Dubois had a goal and two assists in a 7-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks to open a three-game California swing on Tuesday. He has 17 goals and 40 assists on the season, well within reach of surpassing his career high point total of 63 set with the Winnipeg Jets in 2022-23.
“I’m liking the guys I’m playing with, that’s for sure,” Dubois said. “It’s been fun to be on this team. (My teammates) have helped me a lot throughout the season. They keep helping me, so it just makes my life easier. I just have to do my job and they’ll do theirs.”
Dubois has also landed in the middle of a historic statistical pursuit.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin is nine goals from surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s NHL-record total of 894. Ovechkin did not score against the Ducks, but he did contribute three assists.
“It’s fun, it’s exciting,” Dubois said. “When he scores, 50 percent of the crowd gets up and celebrates, the other 50 percent has a smile on their face.”
Ovechkin had a small window to shoot at an empty net in the final seconds against the Ducks, but he opted to pass to wide-open teammate Aliaksei Protas, who scored to complete his first NHL hat trick.
“With his unreal accomplishment coming up, and he makes that play, and how happy he is with me, it says everything about him as a teammate,” Protas said of Ovechkin.
The Kings have won three straight to maintain third place in the Pacific Division.
Kuemper continues to do his part for Los Angeles. He stopped 33 of 34 shots in a 4-1 win against the visiting New York Islanders on Tuesday and has surrendered just four goals on 84 shots in his past three games.
“Darcy is obviously a massive piece of our team,” forward Phillip Danault said. “If he plays like this every night, we have a chance to do something good.”
Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said goalie is “maybe not the most important player, it’s the most important position because one guy doesn’t play all the minutes. You need it on nights, particularly when you don’t have your best as a group of forwards and defensemen, and that was (the case against the Islanders). We relied on him way too much, but he was there and he looked good doing it.”
The Kings also will be focused on taking fewer trips to the penalty box against Washington.
Los Angeles was called for eight penalties against the Islanders, who went 0-for-8 on the power play.
“We’ve got to fix that,” Danault said.
