In any ordinary week, Devan Dubnyk surely would have been the NHL's First Star of the Week.
But in an emotional game Sunday night, Craig Anderson posted his second shutout of the week after returning to the Ottawa Senators from a leave of absence following the cancer diagnosis of his wife, Nicholle.
"It's a pretty amazing thing what he did," Dubnyk said of Anderson's 37-save performance vs. Edmonton. "I think the entire hockey community is very happy for that. It's very disappointing, it's very sad what he and his family have ahead of them. He's obviously very strong, and we'll send him best wishes for everybody. It's tough to talk about it. There's not really words. Everybody will give him as much support as possible."
Dubnyk settled for Second Star of the Week after recording three consecutive shutouts for the first time in his career and Wild history. He stopped all 94 shots he faced and carries a personal-best and franchise-record 180-minute shutout streak into Tuesday's game against Buffalo.
It was Dubnyk's fourth weekly NHL honor since being traded to the Wild in 2015.
"I feel good. The pucks aren't going in, so that's nice," Dubnyk said. "When you have runs like this where you're feeling good and the guys are playing well, you just try to hold on to it as long as you can and stretch it out for as long as you possibly can because as much as I'd like to tell you that it's going to be 82 straight games this way, there's going to be some tougher times throughout the year."
Dubnyk is 5-1-1 this season with a 1.43 goals-against average and .952 save percentage.
