Saturday Night Seven - Devan Dubnyk Allows 7 Goals Against in Loss to Portland Pirates

Today, the Edmonton Oilers recalled Bryan Pitton from the Springfield Falcons. In turn, they sent Devan Dubnyk down to play in Saturday night's game against the Portland Pirates. The Falcons lost by a score of seven to one against and Dubnyk played the entire game without getting pulled.

During this past summer, Oilers GM, Steve Tambellini was active in making roster changes to bolster the Falcons' lineup. Despite a reasonably good start to this season, the Falcons have now lost nine consecutive games. The recent goalie switch was thought by many to give Dubnyk a chance to play since he hasn't seen game-time rubber since he relieved Deslauriers in the Oilers last game vs. Vancouver, Further, it was thought that Dubnyk might provide a reprieve for the struggling Falcons.

More than likely, the Oilers will recall Dubnyk to backup Deslauriers for Tuesday's game against the Kings.

To be entirely honest here, for as long as I've been an Oilers fan, I've paid relatively little attention to the Springfield Falcons. Sure, I've been to their website and checked stats of various prospects. I guess I've also had a vague idea of where they were in the standings at times. However, they've mostly been regarded by me as the place that fresh-faced, enthusiastic kids like Ryan Potulny or Stone spring out of to fill a roster spot or be reasonably effective at killing penalties or chipping in a few points.

Shit, as they say, rolls downhill. It seems that the with the litany of Oilers injuries and the long list of Springfield Falcons recalled from the AHL, it certainly has taxed our little kid brother's depth. The glass half full answer is that it's provided opportunity for players like Ryan Potulny, Taylor Chorney, Dene Arsene, and others to get a cup of coffee in some cases or a full pot of coffee in the NHL.

The other side of the coin is that there's actually people in Springfield that spend time watching these hockey games. For them, I would imagine that a nine-game skid has been pretty painful. Obviously the priority is on the big team, but I wouldn't mind things going a little better in the AHL either.

Bill Thomas scored the lone goal for the Falcon's and he's actually a player that I've never heard of before. Mostly, I pay attention to the prospects that Lowetide tracts and I haven't seen his name come up recently.
Devan Dubnyk previously had a solid start to the season in the AHL. He allowed 7 goals against in just 26 shots for a .731 SV%.
The Falcons had 32 shots on net, but scored just one goal.

From the Falcon's site, here was the lineup:

Falcons Lineup
Charles Linglet – Chad Wiseman – Colton Fretter
Kip Brennan – Geoff Paukovich – Slava Trukhno
Bryan Lerg – Bill Thomas – Liam Reddox
Ryan MacMurchy – Ryan O’Marra – Ronald Petrovicky

Taylor Chorney – Johan Motin
Dean Arsene – Jake Taylor
Cody Wild – Alex Plante

Devan Dubnyk
Aaron Sorochan

Scratches
Bryan Young (Healthy), Matt Nickerson (Healthy), Chris Minard (Injured), Colin McDonald (flu), Theo Peckham (Injured), Chris Armstrong (Injured)