With a 60-point season with the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-2022, his second most productive campaign in his career, Quebecer Pierre-Luc Dubois is also enjoying success at the World Hockey Championship in Finland.
After four games, the 23-year-old is atop his team in scoring, tied with Montreal Canadiens skater Josh Anderson, with six points. However, the two men do not play on the same line. Dubois plays with Nicolas Roy of the Vegas Golden Knights and Dylan Cozens of the Buffalo Sabres. The latter has five points on the clock, he who among other things scored a hat trick in the match against Kazakhstan on Thursday.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” said Dubois, whose comments were picked up by the IIHF website after Canada’s last duel. The chemistry outside the rink is starting to settle and that on the rink too. We talk a lot about the game with [Roy]. [On one of Cozens’ goals], I passed the puck to him while he was covered by two players. He’s probably the only one I would pass the puck to in that situation and he put it in. I am very happy for his three goals during the tournament, especially at this age and at his first World Championship.
Cozens continues to progress, he who is obviously part of the solution in Buffalo, where the Sabers have not tasted the playoffs since 2011. He has also spent the whole of the last campaign in the Bettman circuit, where he has amassed 38 points in 79 games. This short stint in Europe, before the off-season, will undoubtedly allow him to gain a little more experience, in order to do even better in 2022-2023.
A duel for the front row
Still undefeated after four games, the Canadians took advantage of a day off on Friday before resuming their tournament on Saturday against the Swiss.
This match will be a particularly important one, since both teams are still undefeated. The winner will thus offer themselves a serious option to conclude the group stage at the top of Group A.
However, a defeat is not synonymous with the end of the tournament, but with a better opponent in the quarter-finals.
“We started the tournament very well, but it’s a long competition,” added Dubois. There is a possibility of playing 10 games and we are only in game 4. We have to continue to improve in each game, no matter who our opponent is, because at a certain point we will be in a situation where if we lose, we go home.”
– Canada and Switzerland will jump on the ice, Saturday in Helsinki, at 9:20 a.m. (Quebec time).
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