Dubois making ‘friends’ wherever he goes

LAS VEGAS — Uh-oh. Pierre-Luc Dubois is out there making “friends” again. And the big Winnipeg Jets centre, who can be a major pain to play against, is starting to heat up after a slow start to the season by his own high standards.

Wednesday’s game in Denver was by far his best of the first three. Not only did he set up a nifty goal by young Cole Perfetti with a ferocious forecheck, he also got under the skin of Colorado’s Josh Manson which resulted in one of the more unusual penalty calls you’ll ever see — offsetting holding minors to both players.

It was one of those classic cases with Dubois where you’re not entirely sure if he’s the perpetrator or the victim of an on-ice crime. In this case, officials decided to declare both parties guilty.

“I’ve never seen that in a long time,” Dubois said which a chuckle prior to Thursday’s game in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights, which wrapped up a three-game road trip for the Jets.

“That’s just how she goes sometimes, I guess. I thought when I heard the whistle it was just going to be an icing or something. Yeah, I was a little confused by that one. I think it’s just both guys battling for the puck, the fans getting involved and you even it out on both sides so at least nobody can complain too much about it.”

When he’s on his game, Dubois can do a lot of things well. He can put the puck in the net, to the tune of a career-high 28 last season. He can be a playmaker, with 32 helpers last year. And he can be an irritant, putting him rare company as the NHL leaders in both penalties drawn (51), and penalties taken (45).

Dubois figures it comes with the territory. As in, his territory.

“First, when you go into traffic, into the dirty areas, you force guys, if they’re out of position, the only way they can maybe get you back or get back into position is to hold or to trip, to risk something,” he said.

“Often times it leads to a penalty. Whether I’m drawing penalties or not, if I’m going to the dirty areas good stuff happens. Sometimes it’s goals, sometimes it’s penalties, and sometimes it’s just momentum shifts. It’s always fun to get a power play, for sure.”

Dubois drew a tripping penalty against Colorado’s Sam Girard in the first period of Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime victory, which led to Sam Gagner opening the scoring on the subsequent man advantage.

“I think when you draw a lot of penalties, it means a lot of guys are out of position and you gain an advantage and the only way they can get that back or level out the playing field is doing something that leads to them getting a penalty,” said Dubois. “In a perfect world, I would have shot and scored (on the Girard infraction), but if you get a penalty from that, it’s a good plan B.”

Dubois is still adjusting to a slightly different role this season. He was paired with 47-goal scorer Kyle Connor for much of last year, but now finds himself centring a new trio with a young up-and-coming player in Perfetti, and former captain Blake Wheeler.

Their goal against the Avalanche was the first they’d scored this year (Dubois had a power play assist in the first game of the year). And it demonstrated exactly why new coach Rick Bowness believes they can be effective. Dubois (6-2, 205 pounds) and Wheeler (6-5, 225 pounds) will hopefully create plenty of time and space for the 20-year-old Perfetti to do some damage.

“I thought we did some good things. We’re trying to improve game by game. Obviously it’s early on in the season and the first couple games playing together, the three of us. And the team and the new systems and all that. It’s important for us to build every game, and last game was probably our best as a line,” said Dubois.

“I think when we talk about the line and what we want to become and what we can do, we want to be able to do a little bit of it all out there. Defensively, offensively on the forecheck. 90 per cent of the game nothing happens, but you can’t be bad 90 per cent of the game. It’s just moments like that, if we didn’t score it’s a scoring chance and gives us momentum. We want to build from there and keep going.”

Jets assistant coach Brad Lauer and the rest of the staff certainly liked what they saw.

“They played on top, they were making really good decisions at the lines coming into the zone, whether it was just a rim release or little chips. They had the support,” said Lauer.

For the Jets to have success, they’ll need more than one scoring line. The top trio of Connor, Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers — who missed a second straight game Thursday with a lower-body injury — is as potent as they come, but getting Dubois’ group going would be a huge boost.

“(Wednesday) was a solid game for them. I thought offensively, we looked at our numbers from the offensive zone, their line was right in there through the whole course of the night. They were very good in our D-zone, their numbers were strong as far as getting in and getting out of our zone. That line is growing from game to game,” said Lauer.

“They’re understanding each other. It’s only game three, and I think Pierre-Luc was coming off his little injury that he had there (during training camp), I think it’s still there with him, but he’s taking care of that and playing through it.”

For the record, Dubois declared himself “100 per cent,”

This is a significant year for the 24-year-old Dubois, who balked at signing a long-term extension with the Jets last summer and instead “bet on himself” in the form of a one-year, US$6 million deal. That leaves him as a restricted free agent next off-season, just one year away from unrestricted free agency. With the salary cap potentially increasing as much as US$4 million next year, a good showing this year could literally pay off down the road.

Injury bug starting to bite: Ehlers isn’t the only one who will be limping home from the road trip. Defenceman Dylan Samberg, who just came into the lineup on Wednesday for the first time, was sidelined Thursday with an undisclosed ailment. Logan Stanley, who played the first two games before being a healthy scratch against Colorado, was back in. That left blue-liner Kyle Capobianco as the lone healthy scratch. He took the pre-game warmup against the Golden Knights, apparently as a precaution because there was at least one other player who was questionable.

The other change Thursday was backup goalie David Rittich making his Jets debut. Connor Hellebuyck started the first three games, but was given a well-deserved night off, rather than play both ends of the back-to-back.

Winnipeg was also without Bowness for a fourth straight game as he remains back in Winnipeg recovering from COVID. The hope is he’ll be behind the bench on Saturday night when the Jets open a two-game homestand by hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg