The Los Angeles Kings were put in a precarious position when Adrian Kempe was added to the growing list of injured players on Monday night.
A team that's struggling for offense losing their leading scorer rarely recover well.
They need their top players to step up. Players like Kevin Fiala, Anze Kopitar, Quinton Byfield, and of course, Pierre-Luc Dubois.
The center acquired in a blockbuster deal last summer and signed to a contract that will make him the team's highest paid forward next season.
It's been a dismal start to life in Los Angeles for him, but there were some encouraging signs coming out of the All-Star break that he was turning things around.
In the midst of injury troubles, now was the perfect time to prove he was worth Rob Blake's commitment.
Instead, we saw an uninspired performance on Tuesday against the Calgary Flames.
For another player, who doesn't have a history of inconsistent play, you could write this off as a single bad night.
But given Dubois does have that history, it's hard not to be concerned.
He was a -2 against the Flames and probably should have been a -3.
It's hard to fault him on Calgary's first goal, that was a mistake from the Kings' defense and there wasn't much he could do.
On the Flame's third goal, Dubois wasn't knocked with a minus, but should have been.
His poor effort on both the forecheck and backcheck weren't the sole cause of that goal, but they didn't help either.
However, it's the Flames' second goal that truly raises alarm bells.
Dubois losses a battle in the corner without much of a fight, gets to the front of the net and then losses another battle leading to Blake Coleman's go-ahead goal.
It's that lack of fight that's so concerning. He never looked truly engaged in either battle. Never got down low to try and win the battle and had no urgency to make a play.
It looked like a player out at a pickup game where the score doesn't matter.
It's not just the play in isolation either, it's the context of the game that makes it so bad.
If the Kings were anchored to the bottom of the standings and losing a game that ultimately didn't matter, this play wouldn't be okay, but it would be somewhat understandable.
Players on team's with no hope have these kinds of plays all the time, and I get it.
But that isn't the case here. This is a team fighting tooth-and-nail for their spot in the postseason, playing a team that's hunting them down, and it's a tie game.
Excluding dirty plays that warranted suspension, I don't think I've ever used this word to describe someone's actions on the ice.
However, that play was unacceptable from Dubois. Given the expectation on him to be a difference-maker and the context of this game, it's simply unacceptable.
Of course, the loss in Calgary doesn't fall solely on Dubois' shoulders, but that can't be his play down the stretch.
This is a reoccurring theme with Dubois too. A handful of games that make you think he's turning it around and will finally be a difference-maker, followed by plays, and games, like that.
Even the most adamant Dubois defenders, however few of you are left, can't defend that play.
I hate bagging on one player this hard, but when the team needs you to step up, you can't put together a game like Dubois put together on Tuesday.
The games won't get easier either, as the Kings take on the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
The Dubois trade hasn't looked good up to this point, and if this trend of poor play continues, it could be one of Blake's final mistakes as general manager.