Wild's young defensemen are beginning to emerge

Devan Dubnyk dominated the headlines entering Thursday's Wild game vs. Nashville, having delivered three consecutive shutouts.

But another key development for the Wild of late has been the play of their young defensemen, who helped make that shutout streak possible.

Coach Bruce Boudreau has been especially pleased with his second defensive pairing of Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin. Dumba, who scored his first goal Thursday, brings more offensive flair than his partner, but Brodin entered the game ranked third among NHL defensemen with a plus-11 rating.

"[Brodin's] a pretty easy guy to play with," Dumba said. "He's very poised with the puck and always positions himself very well on the ice. Me — I'm not saying I'm the opposite, but I like to go a little more and I think he recognizes that, so it's kind of a nice balance."

The Wild has been carrying seven defensemen, scratching either Mike Reilly, Gustav Olofsson or Kyle Quincey each game. Reilly got scratched Thursday, with Olofsson coming off some of his best performances of the season.

"[Olofsson's] going to be sitting out games still — but the more he plays, the better he gets," Boudreau said. "He's a young D that needs playing time. It was harder to get him in earlier because he didn't have a great camp, but now that he's gotten in and stayed in pretty well, he's doing the things we thought he was capable of doing."

Olofsson and Brodin endured a tough first period Thursday, though, as each turned over the puck and took a penalty against Nashville. But fellow defenseman Jared Spurgeon played a big part in the 6-4 comeback win, with a goal and two assists.

Stalock was slated to start Nov. 8 at Toronto but returned to Minnesota for the early arrival of his newborn daughter, Selena. So Dubnyk faced the Maple Leafs, taking a 4-2 loss.

"[Dubnyk] played not very good in Toronto, and he got mad at himself and he knew he was better than that," Boudreau said.

One day after the Toronto loss, Dubnyk made 41 saves in the 3-0 victory at Montreal, starting his shutout streak. Boudreau wasn't about to sit him Thursday.

Sure, Stalock has been getting rusty, but the coach said he's not concerned. "He'll be unrusty pretty soon," Boudreau said. "He's going to be playing. We've got seven games in 12 days, and you can count on him playing at least two of them."

The Predators finished last season with 94 points, 12 fewer than the Wild, but rose from an eighth seed to the Stanley Cup Final before their luck ran out against Pittsburgh. It was another reminder that anything's possible in the NHL playoffs.