Devan Dubnyk
Devan Dubnyk is to the Blues now what so many goaltenders have been in the past. You can rattle off the names.
Quick, Rinne, Osgood, Joseph, Crawford and more. Those guys have been almost superhuman in their ability to keep the Blues off the board at times.
Dubnyk is among those names. The Minnesota goaltender was almost single-handedly responsible for the Blues early exit in 2014-15.
The Blues did not play their best and the Wild’s scheme and defending deserve credit as well. Dubnyk was the difference maker though.
Even with their backs against the wall, the Blues managed to pepper the Wild with shots in that playoff series. Dubnyk turned aside 66 shots in the last two games of the series alone.
The Blues do seem to struggle with big goaltenders in general and Dubnyk definitely fits that bill. He’s 6’6 and very agile for his size.
The interesting thing is Dubnyk’s dominance began and continued from that playoff series. His overall regular season career record vs. St. Louis is not good.
He is 6-12-2 with a .890 save percentage and 3.22 goals against. Once that playoff series happened though, it has been tough to beat him.
He is going to be a huge X-factor. If we see the Dubnyk that put himself into the Vezina running this year, it’ll be hard to win. If we see him struggle like down the stretch, the Blues have a shot.