Wild's Devan Dubnyk leaves game against Oilers following violent collision
It isn’t news that the start to the Minnesota Wild’s 2019-20 season has been rough.
However, after kicking off the campaign with six losses in their first seven outings and hearing some stern words from veteran Jason Zucker, it appeared that things were slowly turning around.
They knocked off the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Sunday and found themselves up 3-0 after a period of play Tuesday night against the Edmonton Oilers — one of the league’s hottest teams out of the gate. Then, Wild forward Ryan Donato and Edmonton’s Brandon Manning got tangled up while skating towards Minnesota’s net early in the middle frame.
The result was not pretty.
Ryan Donato and Brandon Manning go tumbling into Dubnyk. He hits his head hard on the ice. Alex Stalock is now taking over in net. pic.twitter.com/n628jacK8D
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) October 23, 2019
Standing in his crease as the sequence of events unfolded in front of him, Wild netminder Devan Dubnyk was taken out by a sliding Donato. After flying into the air as a result of the collision and twisting in the process, the team’s No. 1 goaltender hit his head on the ice and was forced to leave the game.
Alex Stalock took over 1:59 into the second period and made 16 saves to complete the shutout as the Wild held on for the 3-0 victory. Dubnyk had made nine saves before exiting the contest.
His status remains unknown at this time. However, Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau is guessing that he’ll be out for the team’s meeting with the Predators in Nashville on Thursday, per Michael Russo of The Athletic.
Over the past four seasons, Dubnyk has played in at least 60 regular season contests for Minnesota and collected a minimum of 31 wins.
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