Conversation With Devan Dubnyk

So let's let's just bring Devon in right into it, and I think you're on vacation.

So we appreciate you joining here, Devon.

Thanks so much for taking the time.

Where are you?

Uh, I'm in a Cayman Islands right now.

Wow.

And you said yes to Vick.

Good.

Wow.

Wow.

Does Vick have blackmail on you or something?

Well, at first I thought, no, I can't do it on my vacation.

And I was like, well, you don't mind palm trees in the ocean, the background.

I'm fine.

Wow.

This is six.

Uh, it keeps you engaged in the game, even while you're on vacation and keeps that hockey

brain, um, spinning in the right direction for the, for the big playoff push.

So we won't waste too much of your time here and we'll get right to it.

Um, I, I found the news of, of the Edmonton Oilers announcing publicly that Conor Ingram

is the starter moving forward.

Um, I found that to be big news.

And I don't feel like it's caught on on such a big scene yet.

And I guess my curiosity with you, Devin, would be like, what would be the impetus to make

this such a public announcement and not just basically continue to call your starter on

a daily basis as they have?

Um, it's a good question.

I don't really have an answer for you on that one is to why they would feel the need to

do that.

And it's necessary, um, you know, you can just continue to start them at this time of

the year.

You're going to play whoever's playing better, which is obviously Conor Ingram right now.

So it's not going to be a surprise to anybody that he's starting game after game, uh, when

these are games that they need.

So, um, I don't know if we'll get an answer.

I certainly would be curious to, if it's some of some sort of insight as to what the reasoning

or motivation behind going out and saying that would be because there really doesn't seem

to be a reason you don't have to do that.

So, um, interesting play for sure.

We talked about, I talked last week a little bit about the Jari situation and whether it

was getting blown out of proportion with stuff in practice and all, all that kind of stuff.

This makes you wonder a little bit about that if it wasn't on a proportion for them to

go out of their way to just say Conor Ingram to starter when they didn't really need to.

Um, certainly raises some eyebrows a little bit.

Devon, I don't know if you saw this clip over the weekend, but, um, Vick will play it for

you.

There was a video of Tristan Jari in a warm up.

And I think a lot of fans were saying he looks mopey or disinterested and to Colby and

I, I mean, I'm speaking for Colby here, but this looks like nothing.

I mean, it's just a goalie who's not getting the start, like skating around.

I mean, are they just looking for something in that little 10 second clip to be mad about?

Like, is that nothing?

Yeah, like, what is there?

I, I don't know what's there either.

Yeah, I mean, you could, you, you, you can spin it however you want, right?

You take a 10 second clip.

There's probably every single NHL goalie in the league that isn't playing in a game is going

to have 10 seconds warm up that look like that.

Now, if you want to watch that warm up, cool warm up compared to other warm up city wasn't

playing earlier on.

If there's some sort of drastic difference between body language and energy out there, sure,

I don't think you're going to find that, but, you know, here's the, the issue with not,

not an issue, but this is your under the microscope.

So, again, if I saw a 15 minute video of him moping around for an entire warm up,

then we could have something to talk about a 10 second clip.

Like I said, you could, you could say whatever you want.

I'm sure there's 10 seconds of every single backup goalie in a game looking like that in a warm up.

Well, let me ask you, like, when you're not starting, is it, okay,

this is my opportunity to warm up my body because you know,

you're not going, if you do go in the game,

most likely it's not going to be for at least an hour, right?

So, I guess I was thinking about it a little bit, Devon,

I don't think I've ever paid attention to what the goalie is doing in any warm up,

whether they're the starter or the backup goalie.

So, like, what did you do when you weren't starting a game?

Like, what was your, your percentage that you were pushing yourself towards 100%,

like, I would honestly have absolutely no idea.

Yeah, well, everybody's a little bit different and it was different to when I was,

you know, when I was starting every game and had one off,

I was probably taking a pretty easy warm up, you know,

cruiser around not doing too much towards the end of my career earlier on.

When I wasn't playing as much when that was more the norm that I wasn't playing,

I would take the opportunity and warmups to get subscading and at the red line,

get some stretching and get sweating a little bit.

You really don't get shots in warm up in the NHL.

If you're not playing, you're going to see a few at the end of warm up is really all you're going to see.

So, there's not really much you can do.

I mean, for me, it was, it was more just entertainment value find a way to engage with the guys a little bit,

have some fun, check out some fans, you know, whatever it was,

because you're out there and you're playing the best game in the world and you're in the best league in the world.

So, you know, try to entertain yourself a little bit,

but, you know, when I, when I wasn't playing and that was more often,

I would certainly try to be sweating a little bit at the end of warm up.

But again, that wasn't for, that was for me personally,

trying to enjoy my time out there a little bit.

I see a lot of backups goal or backup goalies now taking like breakways.

I see that a lot of MSG.

You know, I'm watching warm up pretty much every Ranger home game and it seems like most of the times the backup,

like in the last three to four minutes of warm up, you know, five guys will go take some breakways on

and that's like a fun little way to get the backup goalie involved.

I don't know. That's just something I've noticed.

But Devon, I kind of want to transition just a little bit quickly here and ask you about the Buffalo Sabers.

They've been a big topic of conversation, but Colby and I have noticed it too.

Like it's not exactly playing the prettiest style of hockey in front of Alex Lyon

or Uco Peca-Lucon and those two have been splitting the net pretty much all year long.

And they're both playing, you know, nine, 15 say percentage hockey right now.

And I'm curious just like for you as a goalie watching that, like for them,

is it a lot of fun that the pressure is almost falling on them and they're winning these games?

Or is it like, guys, we can't survive this for much longer.

We need to clean it up in front of the goal tenders or else, yeah,

it's great that we're winning games right now, but come playoff time.

This might bite us in the ass.

No, it's fun because they have confidence in the group in front of them.

The guys are scoring in front of them.

And, you know, scoring chances, they come in two different ways.

There's chaos and there's not chaos.

And so even if there's a great scoring chance, when you're feeling it,

and you trust the guys in front of you and you know what's happening,

even those great scoring chances, they're still, you're still in control

because you're reading what's happening in front of you, reading the play develop.

All right, there's a breakdown here.

I know what my guy's going to do.

I know who's open and you're playing through it.

When you're just pure chaos in front of you and you don't trust the guys

and maybe the team's sliding and you have it one, then it feels chaotic

and you don't really know what's happening in front of you.

And you start to second guess and maybe straight shots go in.

So just because there isn't, you know, stifling defense and they're giving up

scoring chances doesn't mean that these guys don't trust what's happening in front of them.

And are able to read eyes and know and also know that if pucks go in,

that they're working their butts off doing their thing as a group at the other end,

they're putting pucks in the net the same way.

So I think these guys are having a blast.

I think they trust what's going on in front of them.

They understand that this is the way the group's playing.

They're not trying.

They're not out here trying to win one, nothing two to one.

And these guys know what their job is and they're actually able to read off of

their defense and off of their off of their team defense better than it may seem.

Even though there are there are high danger chances, they're able to get reads on them, make those saves.

Yeah, and I'll say this, this is one of the things that makes Buffalo such a good watch right now is

they're so confident offensively and they are so confident in their goal tenders.

They do take a lot of chances.

They do play high risk, high reward hockey.

And most nights, if you wanted to really beat them up on video,

like they outscore their problems.

And so for a fan or a fan base or really anybody who enjoys the game,

like it makes them a lot of fun to watch.

It there's actually there's you can make a little bit of a comparison to the way the

Oilers have played in the regular season for many years where it's a lot of high risk,

high reward score five to seven and give up three to four or whatever.

And the goal tenders always got to be on their toes and ready for whatever comes their way.

And I think that's one of the charms of one of the reasons Buffalo is such a good watch right now,

but track me.

Yeah, yeah, Devon, let me ask you this.

And you're obviously on vacation.

So I don't know if you got an opportunity to see the Canadian's game, Montreal's game last night.

And some of the saves that that Fowler was able to make late in that hockey game.

And I know eventually Cutter Goche scores one pretty late.

And it's sort of the dagger in the coffin for for Montreal.

But you know, let me ask you for a young goal tender like Jacob Fowler, the way they've kind of brought him up,

they've given him a little bit of taste.

Then they feel like maybe the water's getting a little too deep.

They rain them back in and they send them back down.

But now you're in a situation where you're getting so close to the playoffs.

Like, do you need to let him work through some stuff at the NHL level now?

Because there's a chance that Montreal is going to need him and Dolbech,

really, if they're going to have any success in the playoffs.

Yeah, I like, I really like what they've done with him.

I think it's a, it's a unique opportunity that they've had to be able to bring him in.

Like you said, if they feel like it's getting, you know, a little, a little high pressure,

whatever that is, if it's getting, you know, they can, they put him back on.

There's not a ton of scenarios in the NHL where you're allowed to do that.

And then you add to the obviously the extremely high pressure of being in Montreal.

And that's a, that's a great situation to have for them to be able to bring a guy along

and kind of give him a little bit more, a little bit more.

And I think, you know, when it comes to playoff time, if they are going to need him,

if they eventually decide that he's their guy, all of that is going to be beneficial for him.

You know, he's, he's been through pressures.

He's been in situations, I believe earlier on in the year where he was, you know, not just going in there,

but getting leaned on like, we need to win.

Like we got to, we got to write this ship here and he's gone in and done that.

So at the end of the day, come playoff time.

I think that, you know, sheltering or protecting kind of goes out the window

and you're going to be starting your best player.

And if that's fowler, then he's, he's going to be able to go

and you're not just bringing up a guy, you know, you're not just having goalies that are struggling

and you're just bringing up a guy for the first time from the American League

because he's a top prospect and you like what you have in him and you need somebody to play.

This is a guy whose movie you've had up.

The guys are familiar with.

He's familiar and he has an opportunity to succeed in playoffs.

And I think down the stretch, we get closer if they decide that he's their guy

and he's their best option in net, all that, all that protection and shelter goes out the window

and I think they're just, they're going to go with them because they have to.

Devon, I feel like you may have answered a question similar to this.

I feel like I saw a clip or something and maybe I'm, I'm blanking on it

where I got it wrong, but I wanted to ask you this as my last question this morning,

just like kind of looking at the wild card teams.

The teams that are fighting to get into the playoffs right now, both in the East and the West,

like Columbus, Ottawa, Philly, let's say, and then San Jose, L.A. and Nashville,

like all those teams, which one would you find to be the most fun to play in front of right now?

Just like based on roster, maybe, you know, the organization as a whole,

like, is there one of those six teams that you would like want to be in that blue paint for?

Probably San Jose, to be honest, just seems like, well, there's two there.

Let's go, we'll start with San Jose. San Jose just, they feel like a fund group.

This is a young group who is same thing, high octane.

They score a lot. Celebrities just been unbelievable, but that whole group,

they're kind of, they're really young, and they play exciting offensive hockey,

and they're kind of, they're kind of learning as they go here,

and they're doing it all together.

They've got obviously some really important veteran guys in there who are helping lead the way,

but they're, they've taken a bigger jump, I think, than anyone expected this year.

And so this is, this is kind of bonus time, and then right there,

and not only is this bonus time, but they've certainly showed that they deserve to be there,

and I think it would just be a really fun time in San Jose to be going through this challenge,

and to be trying to make the playoffs.

And if you get there, you know, they're all, they're all doing it together,

and this is a little bit unexpected, I think, from a group who's gone through

planning a year or a down.

So I just got to imagine there's a ton of energy and excitement in that room.

And then on the other side, I probably go Columbus.

They've been, they've been a really good team and a really good story.

Obviously, with with brick bonus coming in there,

they have a tough, tough timing on the Olympic break,

but that seems like a pretty energized group who's,

who's right on the cusp there, getting into playoffs.

And, and if they do, you know, coach bonus is showing over and over again,

you know, that he knows how to coach defensively and knows how to,

knows how to get the guys together as a players coach and win.

So I think those two, two fun to be backstopped.

Yeah, well, and for me, Devon, I want to go and finish up here with the Edmonton Oilers,

because again, I, I, I, I still, I still have faith that the Edmonton Oilers will be a good

team when I don't, I still think they have some guys and enough talent, and, and they do

have enough good players that if they decide to manage the puck and engage, like,

they're gonna still be a difficult team to beat, but I will say, like, I'm more worried

about the goal-tending than I ever was, even with Stuart Skinner. And I'm curious,

from your point of view here, like, they made some bold decisions in net this year.

They moved off of the two guys who have both played in the Stanley Cup playoffs and

helped them get to two finals in a row, right? And so if they do swing and miss early in the

playoffs this year, what do you think the outcome will be within the front office, behind the

bench? Like, do you expect wholesale changes pretty quickly in Edmonton, because everybody does

feel like we have this sort of condensed timeline with Conor McDavid only taking that short-term

extension? Yeah, I, I don't know about wholesale, I think, in the goal-tending department,

easier said than done with the trade that they made, but I got to imagine if they don't

have success in playoffs with the way the stretch runs going, they're gonna start to look at

getting a bonafide start bolt-ender in there, because they need to, whether it's stopping

pox, who just taken the narrative off of it. If it doesn't go well this year, then they just,

they just can't do this again, and we said this last year, or they can't do it again, but

here we are. And I think that if it doesn't work this year, that's, that's kind of where, where you

look, again, not just for the saves and having a guy that they can be in there when you games,

because I think that, you know, I think Stooscares has obviously took them to the Cup Final and

Pickard did exactly what he should, and Conor Ingraham's pointing right right now, and so you're

gonna get those, those bursts, but the narrative always goes back to that. And if it doesn't work

this year, that's, that has to paint. We just can't, you can't have the same conversation every

single year, so there's gotta be, they gotta go get a guy if it doesn't work out this year, and,

and obviously it's been, you know, they put themselves in a such tough situation contract-wise,

with, with Jari's, as far as moving guys around, but things can obviously be done. So I think

that's what you'll see, and, and we'll see how it plays out. You know, I, I was watching Skitter and

Pittsburgh there, and, and thinking, I bet you everyone in Hamilton was love to have Stooscares

Skinner in there right now. I've only had a guy like Stuart Skinner. It would have been, it would

have been pretty interesting to see him and how he would have operated if he had a Conor Ingraham

in there. And that, yeah, taking nothing away from Calvin Pickard. I hate having this conversation,

because I love everything about Calvin Pickard. Yeah. And we love him too, a friend of the show.

He may, yeah, he's, he's awesome. And so I, I hate it because every time I had this conversation,

I feel like it's, you know, kind of roundabout talking poorly about Pickard, but it's like, if,

if, if Stuart Skinner had a guy who could come in like, like, uh, Ingraham and play a few games,

the things are struggling, you know, take that pressure off a little bit, and what, what we

have seen from him. And we'll never know. Um, but we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we are,

we are where we are. And Conor Ingraham's playing really well right now. And if he's the guy, he's the

guy. Um, but if it doesn't work out, I got to imagine they're going to have to target, um,

you know, some sort of bonafide starting gold tender. Yeah, it's tough. Right. I mean, they're

not even like, I said to Kobe this morning, like, looking at the standings, I don't even know if

they're like a lock to make the playoffs right now. They're only four points more standing.

What a lock. I mean, a lock. Yeah. Manning's wise. They're now, they're making the playoffs.

Give me a phone. They're falling. They're falling. Well, Conor, have you ever, have you ever watched

Conor McDavid just single-handedly in a game? Be like, no, uh, we're going to win now. Yeah. Yeah.

Go do it. I feel like if we're in the same boat for playoffs, they'll get 40 more points in the

next stretch and just be like, all right. They also won. They won last night. They only gave

I'm not expecting them to miss. I'm just saying they're not a lot of Nashville. It's crazy to

measure playing with Nashville's a team playing with house money. So like, those are actually

pretty tricky games this time of year. Like, you think, oh, they got nothing to play for. Well,

sometimes when you're just out there, like, yeah, whatever, like being a gunslinger,

sometimes those are difficult teams to play against late in the year. Johnny, they're not the

Nashville's four points back. They're not playing for nothing. They're four points back now,

all the sudden. I wonder if you can win as to me were, um, Vegas and, uh, gosh, who else did they

just beat on the road? Vegas and Colorado. Those were those were monument because those are

very difficult games and they were to say, like, you drop both of those. I'm not saying that makes

them miss playoffs, but those are two top teams that you could easily win or lose either of those

games. You lose both of those and then you go into Dallas. Now, all of a sudden, you're outside

looking in and other teams have games in hand. It just changes the thought process to be those were,

like, season changing wins and how this gets approached come, like, leading into playoffs where

they, I mean, they are, they need to be there and they will be, but, um, you know, you drop those two

huge games. Those are, those are really, really big wins. Yeah. Next week, they have another game

in Vegas and then home against the ducks. Like, those are obviously the two teams that they're in

it with right now in the Pacific. Like, they got some big games coming up. They got, and the kings,

they got the ads again. Like, it's going to be a tough stretch down the road here for the others.

It's not like, uh, again, not a surefire thing. Like this playoff race, all of a sudden, like,

it felt like it was uninteresting in the West, like, before the break. And now it's like five teams

going for one spot. It's become very fun. Like Winnipeg climb back in. I don't know where, um,

you know, LA is like in and out every day and, uh, Nashville, obviously, it's like,

Steven Stamco's having 31 goals. It's like the quietest 31 goals of the year. I feel like no one has

even mentioned Stamco's at all. And he's still doing his thing. Um, but Devon, I got nothing else

for you. Obviously, you know, we don't want to take up much more time of your vacation. Everyone

keeps saying your background looks fake and it's hilarious. But, um, we really appreciate your time

this morning. Yeah. Yeah. Someone actually had, I think Euler's fan in our chat had a comment.

Palm trees. Obviously, he's in Buffalo. Um, that was pretty funny. Uh, yeah. Thank you.

You're getting your time this morning. Yeah. Well, people touched throughout the, uh,

the end of the regular season here in playoffs. That was good, guys. Thanks for having me.