DUMBA'S ARRIVAL BOLSTERS IOWA'S BLUELINE
Dec 6, 2014By Tom Witosky
Iowawild.com
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When Matt Dumba learned last weekend he’d been assigned to the Iowa Wild, the young defenseman reacted just like any young man would, particularly after playing 33 games in the National Hockey League.
“I was angry,” the 20-year-old Dumba acknowledged Wednesday in an interview. “I didn’t want to go down. I wasn’t very happy with it.”
But as he thought through the decision, Dumba remembered something his father, Charle (pronounced Charlie), told him during a tough stretch in juniors when Matt played for the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League.
“I was beating myself up because I hadn’t played well in a number of games,” Dumba said. “The coach was getting on me and that’s when my Dad told me that one play doesn’t make a game and one game doesn’t make a career.”
That’s kind of advice club officials in Minnesota and Iowa want Dumba, the club’s top draft choice in 2012, to heed as he works his way back to the NHL – its something that Iowa head coach John Torchetti hinted strongly is almost a foregone conclusion.
“Defensemen usually take three to five years to develop,” Torchetti said. “A lot of that development he already has passed, but he still has things to learn, particularly letting the game come to him instead of trying to force the game.”
Torchetti said that Dumba’s development in the NHL has been thwarted mostly by the lack of playing time. More minutes in Iowa now should pay dividends by allowing him to sharpen his decision-making skills to go along with his well-known ability to attack the goal from the blue line.
“The number one thing is to get him more minutes,” Torchetti said. “He wasn’t playing much up there so now it is a matter of getting him to where he is able to handle more shifts and play in the same style that you are supposed to play in the NHL.”
Tochetti said that means Dumba needs to be comfortable playing up to 25 shifts per game including on the penalty kill and power play instead of the 12 to 15 he has been getting. As a result, Dumba is expected to get a lot of shifts on the Iowa blue line over the next few weeks and possibly longer.
With his arrival, Dumba is also expected to give the AHL Wild additional offensive punch, particularly on the power play as well as when both teams are at full strength. In his first game with Iowa, Dumba scored a goal against San Antonio and had a +2 rating for the game.
“He loves to join the rush all the time,” Torchetti said. “He loves the offensive side of it and that is something great.”
Dumba said he has always enjoyed pushing the puck up the ice, but understands that he needs now to learn how to pick the correct time to go on the attack.
“I am a guy who loves to jump into the rush and create offense,” Dumba said. “But I do have to quiet my game and keep things simple. I should not be trying to do too much because sometimes I do get carried away.”
Dumba said he discovered that his speed and stick-handling skill gave him a great advantage in Junior hockey, but on the NHL level he must begin to think more to find the best opportunity to help the team.
“In juniors I would go, go, go and do what I wanted. But when you get to pro hockey, now you make plays in the right situation at different times during a game. There is so much more to it than attack, attack, attack,” he said.
Dumba’s said his commitment to hockey began at the age of 15 when he discovered that there were scouts watching him closely prior to the WHL draft. In his three full years at Red Deer, Dumba scored 51 goals and had 74 assists as one of that league’s top stars. He also was named twice to Canada’s U-18 national hockey team as well as Canada’s U-20 world juniors national team.
Again, Dumba credited his father, an electrician, with helping him to achieve so much so quickly.
“My father worked so hard and sacrificed. I am just now figuring out how much he did and how much my parents fought to provide for the family during those years,” Dumba said.
He also said that the quick rise to the NHL has had its own pressures from learning how to deal with a lot of money – he signed a three-year $2.6 million contract with Minnesota last year – to learning how to play hockey with veteran players in the their late 20’s and 30’s.
“I think the best way to do it is to have a positive attitude and have as much fun as I can with it. That is how I got into this game and that’s how I want to play throughout my career. I want to keep having fun and keep playing with the passion,” Dumba said.
He remains in contact with friends from Calgary through social media and is in contact with his parents and the rest of his family often. But a lot of the time his father’s words are what he remembers.
“I do it to calm myself down at times when I make a mistake or even when I make a great play,” Dumba said. “One play is among many in 60 minutes of hockey. There are a lot of things that add up to having a great game, a segment of a season, an entire season or in the playoffs. It is not a short sprint.”