A look from a former NHL goalie’s perspective

Devin Dubnick, who is a former Minnesota Wild goaltender, but played for other teams in the NHL, now with NHL Network. NHL Tonight, 10 o'clock. Tonight, on that network, he joins us to talk about goaltending. These decisions, we make more of them than maybe you guys do, but even if Aunty Ronta was healthy, isn't that kind of an easy decision, the way Freddie had played in at least three of the last four games? 100%. I couldn't believe that the conversation was there.

We had our production meeting for the NHL Now yesterday, and I was caught off guard by the question. I was like, wait, is he hurt? Did he get out? And they're like, no, they're just considering not playing him.

I was like, why? He played amazing. He's got one slip up, which is going to happen, but you've got him to where they are.

He's their best option right now. So I was very surprised to hear that the conversation was even happening. And you know what? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe internally the conversation was probably never there, and it was just in media and whatnot. Rod Brindamore, Devin Dubnick from NHL Network is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Rod Brindamore always like, it's never as big a deal to them as it is to us. And as I always tell Rod, because I speak to him like four times a week now, I always tell him that I've got a lot of time to kill, so I have to think about these things, and maybe we get in their way. I'm curious, as a goaltender, when a goal goes in that you are like, man, that can't go in.

I don't know how it works. Does a player say to you, don't worry, we got you, we'll pick you up? Is there ever an apology? How does that work if the goaltender is having an off night? It really depends on the situation, you know.

It happens, it happens to everybody. The biggest thing I think in game, if one gets by that you know you shouldn't, the biggest thing and the hardest thing is trying to make sure the next one doesn't go in. Don't let it affect what you do next. One of the most difficult jobs as a goaltender is that it's purely reactive, and so you have to make yourself not force it to go out there, because you can only stop the next shot, and that shot might come in 30 seconds, it might come in 30 minutes. There's no way of, but if you are letting that previous goal bother you, and needing that next shot, needing to make that next save, then you start forcing it, and that doesn't go well either. There's times, you know, sometimes you just don't have it, and you know what, if you've been working your butt off and playing well and there's no apologies needed, I've apologized before if I let in a couple bad goals and they were at bad times.

Sorry guys, it's not good enough. And your teammates are always there to pick you up, so it's kind of different situations, but you certainly don't have to go in there and apologize for every bad goal that goes in, because I can certainly tell you the forwards and the D-men are apologizing every time they turn the puck over, or screen the goalie for a goal, or anything like that. It's all dependent on the situation, but I've had times I've apologized and times that I haven't. Devon Dubick is joining us here, NHL Network, 10 o'clock tonight. If you're part of a system, or a situation rather, where you've got two healthy and effective goal tenders, how does that work? Is it okay to rotate? I know every situation is different, but if you were part of that situation, how do you deal with it?

I never was, so I don't know exactly. I always like to play a ton, but I know that it's completely changed and I think it's changed in a good way. I think it is good that teams, and it's good for the league that there's enough talent out there for every team to have essentially two goalies that you can almost play 50-50, but I'm still having a tough time buying into that in the playoffs. I think that every game is so important, and it's hard to just imagine rotating goalies in the playoffs.

Maybe if you just said, that's what we're doing, and then just stuck with it, I guess. But it's hard to imagine, because you watch playoffs and there's so much to do with momentum, it's hard to think about taking a guy out that could get rolling three or four games a row, because I remember playing. You get feeling good and you step out on the ice, and the better you play, the more it rolls onto the next game.

The puck starts looking a little bigger and everything's moving a little slower in front of you. It's hard to imagine rotating guys in playoffs. Carolina is a unique situation. They've got three good goalies.

I was watching Kachetkov this year, and I'm like, damn, this guy is unreal. To have two guys makes things confusing sometimes, but to have three, you just hope to God that Freddie keeps playing the way he's playing. And then you don't have to start guessing who to play, but if a couple guys aren't playing great, that becomes a difficult situation to try to figure out who to put in there. Final question for Devin Dubnica, NHL Network. When you look at the New Jersey Devils' goaltending situation right now, Carolina pulled Freddie Anderson in Game 3. The Devils have pulled their goaltender in Game 2, but they pulled their goaltender in three of the four games.

Where did they go? Did they go to Mackenzie Blackwood, the third goalie? I would go, I said yesterday before the game started that I thought they should go back to Schmidt for yesterday's game. I think that he, the way he played in that first round, I mean, he saved their first round and I just love, I love the way he played and, and watching the first two games. Like it was almost like the, the first couple of games against the Rangers, you know, the Devils is worth the same team and you kind of hung them out a little bit, but you know, I agree going like try and vent a check because he had a great season too. But like watching, watching the game last night, VTech just doesn't seem to have, he's just not comfortable. He doesn't have the confidence that, you know, he's quite deep in his net on certain plays when you can't be.

And that, and that a lot of times has to do with confidence and, and, you know, it's not like everything's happening smooth in front of him either. So that doesn't help, but I would have gone back to Schmidt last game. And if I was coach, I'd be going to Schmidt this game. I think he's, he's been there.

I just think it's been too long for, for Blackwood to be off to put your entire season on a guy that hasn't played for quite a while. And you got a guy that, yeah. Okay. You had to pull him twice, but he also had a nine 85 save percentage in your first round series that got you to where you are right now.

Yeah. That seems, seems like a good save percentage to me. I'm not an expert or anything, but something like nine 85.

It might've been nine 82 out there, but it might've been a little off, but it was somewhere, somewhere in that ballpark. Devin Dubnick. I appreciate your time. Have a, have fun on the TV later on today.

Will do. Yeah. Thanks for having me guys.

You got it. Devin, Devin Dubnick, former Minnesota wild Edmonton oiler, national predator, Arizona coyote, San Jose shark, Colorado avalanche is played, played in a lot of places. When you're a good goalie, you can play in a lot of places. Um, yeah, the, the, the goaltending situation for the hurricanes is probably a lot easier when you recognize that Freddy right now is the only super healthy one.

Physically and, uh, other in a free of illness. Rod has been bothered by some illness over the last week and could check off. If we had the version of Kachetka from November and December, it would be, it would certainly be a topic of discussion, but we don't have that now. And he's fine to back up. You don't need Ron to the backup for the most part at this point, but. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he will be the backup tomorrow in game five. And let's just hope the Carolina closes this one out. Freddy will play because Freddy should play. And then when we get to the next series, we'll see how it goes. I think we'll, we'll, I think we'll definitely see both goaltenders, uh, start games going forward right now. Freddy has been awesome. Let him cook.