Capitals’ Dubois exits game against Penguins with upper-body injury

The Washington Capitals announced during their game on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins that center Pierre-Luc Dubois suffered an upper-body injury and would not return.

It’s been an injury-plagued season for Dubois, who was out from October 31 until February 5 with an abdominal injury, which caused him to miss a total of 4 games. Dubois required surgery to address the issue.

When he has been available for the Caps, Dubois has produced at a somewhat comparable rate to what he did in his first year with the team a season ago. His 18 points in 28 games played follow up a 66-point effort in 82 games in 2024-25, a year that saw him revitalize his career after a challenging year in Los Angeles.

The Capitals were able to pick up a crucial two points in the standings on Saturday against a Penguins squad that was resting several key players, including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, with their fate locked in as the No. 2 seed in the Metropolitan Division.

Dubois recorded an assist on Ryan Leonard’s 19th goal of the season before he left the game, which the Capitals went on to win by a 6-3 margin.

That ran their record 41-30-9, putting them one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the third-place spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers have one game in hand, which they will play on Saturday night against Winnipeg.

Washington is no longer able to access the East’s second wild card spot following Ottawa’s victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday.

The Caps have two games left on their schedule to try to complete an impressive rally back into the Stanley Cup Playoff field.

Washington will host Pittsburgh for the second half of a back-to-back on Sunday, and then they’ll draw the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena for the finale on Tuesday.