DENVER – Devan Dubnyk doesn't consider himself a regular on highlight reels.
"Unless I'm flying around doing poke checks out of my net," he said.
But the replay of one of his stops has been making the rounds in the hockey world and looks like an early candidate for save of the year, a windmill-style catch Dubnyk made Thursday in the Wild's season opener against former teammate Mikael Granlund.
"It's great," said Dubnyk, who became just the second goalie in franchise history to play in 300 games on Saturday. "It's not the save selection you're going to make all the time in that play. That's what makes it fun. I don't know why it happens sometimes that my brain decided to do something like that, but it's fun.
"Guys loved it on the bench … but the most important thing was the puck stayed out of the net. It's certainly fun to be able to do something like that every once in a while."
Early in the second period of an eventual 5-2 loss for the Wild, Nashville's Matt Duchene led a 2-on-1 with Granlund into the Wild's zone.
Recognizing Duchene as having a potent shot, Dubnyk was set on Duchene. Once Duchene handed off to Granlund, Dubnyk knew he could get over to front Granlund but he'd have to open up to attempt the grab — which he ended up timing perfectly.
"It's good to have your body know that it can do something different, too," the 33-year-old said. "I'm old, [but] I got that deep down in me somewhere."
