‘You know how hard it was to get wins?’: Former Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk remembers Sam Gagner’s eight-point night different than most

The Edmonton Oilers didn’t give their fans a lot to cheer for in the Decade of Darkness — but we all know that.

So when Sam Gagner went out and had a career night on February 2nd, 2012, scoring eight points, fans were elated to root for one of their favourites. Gagner was all over it that night, scoring four goals and as many assists, helping his team down the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 8-4.

There’s at least one person who didn’t quite remember the game the same, however.

Former Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who was between the pipes that night for the team, said he had no clue just how good Gagner’s night had been — or why the team was still cheating for offence.

“I wasn’t nearly as excited as everybody else because it was like 6-4 and we were just going with 3-on-1’s back and forth and I was like ‘Fellas, I know this is great but it’s the third period and we’re winning a hockey game. We don’t have to trade 3-on-1’s with the other team,’ but apparently we did, and fortunately we won 8-4,” he said with a laugh on Thursday’s edition of Oilersnation Everyday. “But it was so cool.”

“I don’t even think I knew he had six points at this time. I’m just like ‘What the hell is going on here?’ It was just pond hockey — you know how hard it was to get wins in Edmonton?,” he added with another laugh. “Like we got a two-goal lead in the third period, this does not happen very often. We need to shut this thing down, but it was just a free-for-all. It was just a crazy night.”

One could understand where Dubnyk was coming from. After all, the game had been tied 3-3 heading into the third period when things really opened up as Gagner would score three goals that period alone, assisting on others from Cam Barker and Jordan Eberle.

The good news for Dubnyk is they still got him the win and he turned aside 43 of the 47 shots he faced for a .915 save percentage. Not bad!

Dubnyk had plenty of good things to say of Gagner, now 35, who officially retired from his playing days to join the Ottawa Senators front office as their director of player development.

Gagner had been an Oiler for two years already when Dubnyk cracked the roster in 2009-10, and the pair played parts of five seasons together during some tough times for the franchise.

“I was close with Sam, and he’s an amazing guy,” he recalled. “He came in super young, and I remember very clearly he was like a shootout wizard. I’m sure all Oilers fans remember that, but that was kind of early in the shootout days…. and he came in and was just a wizard.

“He was a smaller guy, but a great guy in the room — hilarious, always in a good mood and fiesty for not a big player.”

Gagner’s career was long, of course, spanning 18 seasons of professional hockey — something Dubyk attributed to his ability to change his game.

“He played a long time just because he had skill, but worked extremely hard, and he kind of found his spot even when he wasn’t necessarily there to be a skill guy towards the end,” he said. “He extended his career for a really, really long time, just because of his work ethic and being liked and a well-liked guy in the room.”