Dubois’ brilliance extending past points

SEATTLE — Let’s make one thing clear: The Winnipeg Jets come away from their hasty two-game weekend jaunt into the Pacific Division emptyhanded if Pierre-luc Dubois doesn’t absorb a stiff right hand to the back of his head.

The Jets don’t get put back on the power play with less than half a minute left in the third period, and aren’t manufacturing the madness in front of the Seattle Kraken net to produce a last-second game-tying goal.

Sunday night’s story from Climate Pledge Arena, underneath the duelling jumbotrons known simply by locals as the “Twins,” looks a lot different if Dubois doesn’t stick his shoulder into the chest of Kraken defenceman Carson Soucy while the two were jockeying for position in Seattle’s zone.

The tale from Sunday would have simply read that, for the second night running, a former Jets player plunged the final dagger into their former club, sealing the victory for their current one.

But Dubois, who blends his powerful, at times dominant, skill set with the detested qualities of a pest, simply proved too irresistible for Soucy to pass up a late opportunity to snag his pound of flesh late.

The punch was a godsend, if you can call it that.

Soucy won the skirmish, sending Dubois face-first to the ice after the two hacked and slashed each other in the buildup to a strike that’s considered illegal in the UFC.

Yet it was Dubois who helped win the war.

Dubois’ play reminds you of Boston’s Brad Marchand in the way he’s able to penetrate the surface of the skin with an unmistakable irritation, yet can finesse a puck into the back of the net on offence.