Dubnyk Wins First Start with Avalanche

It wasn't the plan for Devan Dubnyk to get the start in St. Louis, but the goaltender with more than 500 games in the league was ready when Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar had to go with him.
"He's an experienced guy, he's played against St. Louis before. He played in this building already this year," Bednar said. "When you got to lean on guys, you want to be leaning on your veteran players, and that's what he was brought in to do."

The Avs intended for Philipp Grubauer to guard the pipes for Wednesday's matchup against the St. Louis Blues, but the club turned to Dubnyk after Grubauer entered the NHL's COVID-19 protocol earlier in the day.
Dubnyk made 31 saves on 34 shots to earn the win in his Avalanche debut as the club defeated the Blues 4-3 at Enterprise Center.
"It was awesome. You know, pretty surreal," Dubnyk said of his first start with Colorado. "Even you saying 'Avalanche goaltender' seems a little weird to me, but it was fun. I thought the guys played awesome. We had a great second period, and you know they were going to come with a push in the third. We had some real big plays, big blocks, guys just working, stuck out on the ice when they're pushing and making big plays. It's fun to go out there."

It was only the fifth day that Dubnyk had been a member of the club after being acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. He joined the Avs in Southern California and was the backup for Sunday's contest at the Anaheim Ducks and on Monday versus the Arizona Coyotes.
Due to travel, the compressed schedule and COVID concerns, Dubnyk has not even had a full pre-game skates with his new squad, but there weren't any hiccups communication-wise with his teammates in the first outing.
"I think it helps that I got to watch a couple games beforehand, but I wouldn't call it difficult to play behind those guys, that's for sure," Dubnyk said. "I just wanted to go out, and it's a new thing for me, it's a new thing for them feeling me back there, and that's just things you have to get over and get through after a trade for a goalie. It was nice to work back there behind that group, and it's a pretty scary group, how good we can be when we play."

The Regina, Saskatchewan, native stopped all 11 shots he faced in the second period and 13-of-15 in third frame as the Blues attempted to rally to tie the contest.
Overall, he is the 11th netminder to pick up the victory in his debut with the Avs (since 1995-96), and it was Dubnyk's first win of any kind since making 28 saves on March 12 at Anaheim.
"I think he did a nice job for us," Bednar said. "We gave up some really good scoring chances early in the game, he did a nice job. And then in the third period they were coming at us with everything they had, and they were on a big push, and we didn't handle it very well. He made the saves he needed to make.
"To be able to come in with a new team, first game and have that performance, I was proud of his game and I think that he's only going to get better as he spends more time with us and continues to put more work in."
There is going to be a lot more work ahead of him with Grubauer out and the Avs playing at least every other day for the final three-plus weeks of the season.
Not that Dubnyk minds the workload.
"I'm excited," he said. "I think anybody will tell you, when you start to play games consecutively, more and more, you're going to start feeling better and better… So I think it's going to be a fun opportunity, and I'm sure when the games start rolling it will feel normal again."

GRUBAUER IN PROTOCOL

Roughly two and a half hours prior to game time, the NHL announced that Philipp Grubauer had been added to the league's COVID-19 protocol list.
Grubauer will have to quarantine for 10 days and could resume team activities in two weeks after passing cardiac tests. In the meantime, he will be unavailable to practice, travel or play in games.
The timing is tough for Grubauer and the club, as the goaltender has put together a Vezina Trophy-worthy campaign to this point.

"It's disappointing, it's too bad for Grubi," Dubnyk said of his goaltending partner. "Obviously we want him to feel great, but it's just this year, it can happen to anybody."
Grubauer is presently tied for first in the NHL in wins (25), shutouts (five) and games played (34) and ranks tied for third in goals-against average (2.00) and tied for ninth in save percentage (.920) among keepers who have played in at least 10 games.

ENTER CARL

Forward Carl Soderberg made his second "Avalanche debut" on Wednesday after being acquired by the club from the Chicago Blackhawks prior to Monday's NHL Trade Deadline.
Soderberg skated four seasons with Colorado from 2015-2019, collecting 57 goals and 94 assists. He played in 323 of a possible 328 games in his first stint with the club.
The Malmo, Sweden, native started the contest on the Avs' second line as the left wing with Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky, two players that weren't on the team the last time he wore burgundy and blue. Soderberg logged 15:02 of ice time, including 1:20 on the penalty kill.
"I felt pretty good. I know the system, so it's more about the system that is harder than [playing with] two newer guys," Soderberg said. "I mean Kadri is a solid player, Burakovsky can make plays all the time, so it's a great line. I felt pretty good."

Bednar certainly liked what he saw from his new/old player.
"I loved his game. I thought he was outstanding," Bednar said. "That line was really good right out of the gate for us. I think their first three or four shifts were spent in the offensive zone. He was making plays, he's on pucks, he was skating real well for us. It's not going to take me long to mix him back in with the group as you saw today. He was playing on our second line, he was playing penalty kill, important defensive situations. The way he was moving out there, I really liked what he brought to us."
Soderberg didn't travel to Denver before Wednesday, as he instead met the team in St. Louis by making the four-hour drive from Chicago.

LINEUP NOTES

Conor Timmins played in his first NHL game since March 6. Timmins missed eight contests with an upper-body injury after getting hurt in that last contest before being reassigned and suiting up in six outings with the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles.
Timmins saw 9:09 of ice time, recorded his first NHL point with an assist, and had a career-high three blocked shots. He started on a defensive pairing with Jacob MacDonald, who changed his number to 26 after giving his previous No. 34 to Carl Soderberg.
Joonas Donskoi missed his first game of the season as he was dealing with symptoms after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine with the rest of his teammates following Monday's game.
Defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who the Avs traded for on Friday from the Detroit Red Wings, did not play as he is working through a minor upper-body injury.
Jonas Johansson was the backup goaltender to starter Devan Dubnyk.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

The Avalanche reached 30 wins in its 43rd game of the season, the fewest games to reach the 30-win mark in franchise history. Colorado surpassed the previous record which was held by the 2013-14 and 2000-01 clubs, both with 30 victories in 47 contests.
The Avs are 21-3-3 in their last 27 contests dating back to Feb. 26 and 9-1-0 over their last 10 outings. Colorado is 7-1-0 in the month of April so far, the most wins and points (14) of any team this month.
Mikko Rantanen scored his 26th goal of the season, which ranks second in the league to Toronto's Auston Matthews (32). He also had an assist and extended his point streak to six games (five goals, four assists). Rantanen's goal came on the power play and was his eighth man-advantage tally of the season, tied with Gabriel Landeskog for the team lead.
Nathan MacKinnon registered an assist to lengthen his point streak to 11 games, the longest active streak in the NHL and tied for the fourth-longest point streak in 2020-21. He also has a current six-game assist streak, tied with Toronto's Zach Hyman for the longest active assist streak in the league. MacKinnon is tied for fourth in the NHL with 53 points (17 goals, 36 assists).
Head coach Jared Bednar coached his 359th career game tonight, tying Bob Hartley for the most games coached in Avalanche history (since 1995-96). Bednar owns a 175-145-39 career record (.542) and ranks second in wins behind Hartley (193) since the team moved to Denver.
Liam O'Brien tallied two assists for the first multi-point game of his career and posted a career-best plus-2 rating. His three points (all assists) this season have eclipsed his career high of two points in 13 games played from the 2014-15 campaign with the Washington Capitals.