NHL: Dubnyk returns to Arizona grateful

By Marino Eccher
St. Paul Pioneer Press
GLENDALE, Ariz. - A homecoming for Devan Dubnyk? Not quite. Though he opened last season playing for the Coyotes in Arizona, he figures he’s played there more often as a visitor than on home ice.
And he’s not far off in his guesstimate. He’s actually played at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Ariz., in nine games for the Coyotes and six for their opponent.
But if there’s no emotional outpouring in his return to the desert Thursday night for the Wild’s 9 p.m. game against the Coyotes, there’ll be no shortage of gratitude either.
“I attribute a lot of (my) success last year to the way the guys there, the coaches, the organization, brought me in and were excited to have me there,” the Wild goaltender said. “I wasn’t a damaged project that they were trying to resurrect.”
For most players, half a season as a pretty good goalie for a pretty bad team would be nothing to stick in the scrapbook. For Dubnyk, coming off a year in which he teetered on the brink of minor-league oblivion, “that’s exactly what I needed.”
He got his mind and his pads right, with the aid of goaltending coach Sean Burke. He made friends; a handful of teammates, including fellow netminder Mike Smith, spent a week in the offseason playing golf with him in Europe.
“It just felt like I’d been part of that team for a long time,” he said.
The good vibes aren’t lost on Wild coach Mike Yeo - nor is the running start Dubnyk got on his stunning finish here last season.
“I know he’s grateful to them and what they did for him,” Yeo said. “Clearly, he was on top of his game before he came to us last season. Certainly he elevated it to a new level, and what he did with us was very special. But he had a good start to the season and played good hockey for them last season.”
Dubnyk played against Arizona in his second game in a Wild uniform, backstopping a 3-1 victory in St. Paul. This will be his first return to the ice in Glendale.
“It might be a little bit weird to play in that building,” he said, but with a fair bit of road experience there, “maybe it’ll feel back to normal.”
B.J. Crombeen, a former Coyotes forward and the architect of the golf trip, said he and Dubnyk’s other erstwhile teammate had an eye on his Vezina Trophy finalist run.
“We watched him close,” said Crombeen, now a free agent. Even as the Coyotes slogged through what would wind up as a last-place finish in the West, “we were super excited to see him do as well as he did.”
Dubnyk, in turn, has watched the Coyotes get off to a 2-0 start with wins over a pair of presumptive contenders in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. They played the Ducks in Anaheim in a late game Wednesday.
These Coyotes, Dubnyk said, don’t much resemble last year’s 56-point finishers - and he hasn’t offered up any advice in the Minnesota locker on how to beat them, figuring he has enough on his mind as is.
“I’m real happy to see them doing well, he said. “Maybe just not as well on Thursday.”
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