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Its the opening game of the 2014 Eastern Conference finals. Star goalie Carey Price?suffers an injury, and it doesnt look good.Two time zones away in Edmonton, Devan Dubnyk, technically still property of the Montreal Canadiens but on leave, cannot believe the sickest of ironies.I remember watching that game too, and I was like, What the f---. Of course! Dubnyk recalled this week, shaking his head. That was the very day I got home.That day -- May 17, 2014 -- might have been rock bottom of an already awful 2013-14 season.Because the reality is that even if Dubnyk had not pulled the plug on his season and had stayed in Montreal, where he was trying to work his way into the organization, he was in no position to help the Habs.Dustin Tokarski and Peter Budaj were ahead of him on the depth chart. And he was in a place, both technically and mentally, having not played in forever, having had a miserable season ... well, he wasnt going to help anyone.I wasnt dumb. I mean, if I truly thought I would have had an opportunity, I wouldnt have gone anywhere. But it had been such an insane season and I had a 10-month-old son at home. I hadnt seen him for 10 weeks. Im practicing with six guys every day in Brossard, Dubnyk said of the Habs practice facility. Theres more important things I need to be doing in my life right now, and thats being a dad. The Canadiens were awesome about it. I just told them I had to go see my son and my wife.Just two and a half years later, now with the Minnesota Wild, Dubnyk finds himself just ahead of Price atop the NHL with a .946 save percentage, a lofty perch not based on catching lightning in a bottle but rather a continuation of his technical and mental turnaround that began right after that 2013-14 season.The fun part about it is that it doesnt feel like anything crazy; it doesnt feel like Im hanging on for dear life until something collapses, Dubnyk said of his league-leading save percentage. It just feels like were playing well together as a team, Ive got a great feeling standing back there. ... Theyre letting me make great reads and be patient. Im just really comfortable back there.Confidence, humility, humor, all three resonate during a half-hour interview with ESPN.com Monday evening at the Wilds team hotel in downtown Toronto.However painful that 2013-14 season might have been, it has no doubt forged the person and goaltender that the 30-year-old is today.I always viewed great adversity as a gift, Ive always believed in it,?Dallas Eakins, Dubnyks former head coach with the Edmonton Oilers, said last Friday. I think it makes us better people, better at our jobs, all those things, to go through some nasty, nasty adversity. Probably that time in Edmonton and then going through a couple of organizations very quickly, that was surely very hard on Devan and his family.Former Oilers GM Craig MacTavish says he feels the same way.A lot of times failure is the impetus that spurs development, MacTavish said Monday. I really believe that with Devan. Whether its a mentality change, whether its a commitment change, whatever it is, failure for me leads to opportunity when framed the right way. And I think Devan really framed it the right way.Relayed MacTavishs comment, Dubnyk concurred.You know what, I think hes right. You have to go through these things in life and in your career, he said. Theres no way to know what it is you have to go through. Not everyone has to get traded or go down to the minors like I did.But that was indeed his path.The seeds of that pivotal 2013-14 season were planted at the June 2013 draft in New Jersey when word leaked that the Oilers were trying to acquire Cory Schneider from the rival Vancouver Canucks (which McTavish confirms). Schneider would end up being traded to the New Jersey Devils instead that weekend, but the psychological damage had been done for Dubnyk, who was entering the final year of his contract.It was disappointing, for sure, Dubnyk said. With MacT coming in as a new GM, hes the boss, and he needs to build the team as he sees fit. Cory Schneider is a world-class goalie, so its not like hes out there trying to get some bum to replace me. But I was disappointed because I felt I had shown in the previous year, it was my best season, I had a .920 [save percentage], I didnt understand where it was coming from.What it did is plant the narrative with Oilers fans that their goaltending wasnt good enough.His opening five games were a nightmare, Dubnyk giving up 22 goals. It snowballed from there.I didnt do myself any favors, I wasnt exactly knocking any pucks down, he said. Ill never forget those first 4-5 games. I remember the days between games, I felt sick. Wed be on the road and I would go to a movie to try and just lose myself for two hours. As soon as the movie was over, I felt sick again. That was a really tough couple of weeks to start the season.He actually steadied himself to some degree, but his fate was set. The Oilers traded him to the Nashville Predators for Matt Hendricks on Jan. 15, 2014, though Dubnyk played only two games.I remember when we traded him, I was talking to him in my hotel room, said Eakins, now head coach of the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate in San Diego. I was actually really excited for him.When a goaltender is just OK or suffering, a good team is able to forge through and support the goalie. That was the one thing we couldnt do in Edmonton. I felt terrible about it personally. I know the organization didnt feel good about it, either. We werent able to support Dubs on a nightly basis. And man, he was battling hard, he was doing everything he could to try to help us win. I always appreciated that about him and really respected that.Dubnyk has no bitterness toward the Oilers, grateful for them for giving him his start.[But] my journey is that I had to really crash and burn, and it took me to Arizona, he said, where I was just so grateful at that point just to have a job in the NHL.He loved his short time with the Arizona Coyotes, where he signed as a free agent in July 2014. Its where he rebooted his career. Its where he met Sean Burke.He really started it all for me. Burkey just gives you confidence without saying anything, Dubnyk said. You know he thinks youre good. And if youre not doing something right, hes going to tell you. Hes not going to beat around the bush. You know where you stand with him and you know hes got your back.Burke, goalie coach and assistant GM with the Coyotes at the time, had helped resurrect Mike Smiths career as well. He saw another worthy project in Dubnyk.We got him sort of beat up and bruised, Burke, now a Western scout for the Canadiens, said Monday. But I remember thinking it was a good move on our part. Devan was always intriguing to me, a big guy who moved fairly well. He came in with a really open mind. Hes a really nice person. I just remember from the minute I met him that I knew he was going to be a sponge.Dubnyk distinctly remembers after his third game of the 2014-15 season, a 6-5 win Nov. 2 at the Washington Capitals, that Burke took him aside and showed him a video that helped his positioning through more efficient movement.He wanted me to beat the pass on my feet and be set. That was really it, it was pretty simple, Dubnyk said.It just sharpened everything up for me, thats what got everything going for me.With Smith signed long-term and Dubnyk on a one-year deal, Coyotes GM Don Maloney dealt Dubnyk to the Wild on Jan. 15, 2015 -- one year to the day after his trade by the Oilers.The Wild, flailing away on miserable winless streak, saw their season completely turn around after Dubnyks acquisition (for a third-round pick, no less). It proved a good move by Wild GM Chuck Fletcher, who called it an act of desperation at the time. Dubnyk went on a historic run, starting 40 straight games and almost single-handedly pushing the struggling Wild from down the standings to into the playoffs.In the meantime, Dubnyk began forging a very good working relationship with Wild goalie coach Bob Mason. But on top of that he also found another edge in his game after being introduced to Lyle Mast, a goalie guru who had developed a ground-breaking teaching method that focused more on vertical movement than lateral movement while tracking the puck.Mast has worked for years with Los Angeles Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford and netminder Jonathan Quick, as well as other goalie coaches and netminders in pro and junior. Dubnyk talks or texts with Mast around almost every game.But this is more than just a technical revival. This meteoric rise from the ashes of that 2013-14 season is just as much a mental one.Oh, 100 percent, Dubnyk said. Getting to that state of mind of just being grateful to have a job.Seriously, he means that. He got to a point heading into July 1, 2014, with agent Mike Liut when he prepared himself to accept where his career was going.Right before I signed in Arizona, the only thing I did accept just to almost relieve some pressure, I just understood that at my age [28 at the time] and the situation I was going in with Smithy there, is that my window might have passed in terms of being a starter, he said. Just because of the way the league is.Hes now a top-five goalie in the world.Signed to a six-year, $26 million deal with the Wild in the summer of 2015, Dubnyk is in a good place. All around.Minny is such a great place to raise a family, we enjoy it so much there, said Dubnyk, who with his wife has two boys, 3 and 1. I mean, life is great. Gosh, it was so close to being a whole lot different than that ...But its not. Because Devan Dubnyk didnt give up. Because he stayed positive. He rolled up his sleeves and went back to work, just as so many people counted him out.Fake Yeezys For Sale . - Levi Browns tenure at left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers is over before it even began. Wholesale Yeezy 350 White . LOUIS -- Roman Polak was celebrating even before Alexander Steen scored the winning goal in Saturdays 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. http://www.yeezys350cheap.com/fake-yeezy-350-static-wholesale.html . -- Ohio States Urban Meyer has never had any issue acclimating to the biggest stages in college football. Fake Yeezy Boost 350 v2 Black .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. Cheap Yeezy 350 v2 White . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46.MEXICO CITY -- Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert and Santonio Holmes are sitting at a table, yelling at Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell over a basket of wings. Ben Roethlisberger and his girlfriend, Tom Brady, are making mock-angry eyes at each other in a corner booth. A tiny LeVeon Bell is playing Minecraft with his little sister.Its Oct. 23, the Sunday afternoon that the New England Patriots are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a couple of thousand miles away from Heinz Field, at a Buffalo Wild Wings near the Roma Sur section of Mexico City, members of Steelers Nation United Mexico are eating and drinking, living and dying, waving Toallas Terribles.If you want to know why the Houston Texans are playing the Oakland Raiders in Estadio Azteca on Monday -- the first Monday Night Football game ever played outside the United States -- this is why.The passion Mexicans have for American football is why tickets for the game sold out almost immediately. Its why renovations were done on Aztecas locker rooms to accommodate NFL-sized squads (the regular futbol tenants dont require nearly as much space) and the stadiums broadcasting facilities were upgraded. Its why four Mexican sports channels partner with the NFL, why nine games are broadcast in Spanish from Thursday to Monday of every week, why estimates put the number of NFL fans nationwide at over 20 million.As Arturo Olivé, NFL Mexicos general director, says, Were tremendously excited, not only for this game but for the future of the sport in Mexico. We havent had a regular-season game here since 2005, but now I think we can have one every year. ... By every measure, we are seeing tremendous growth.While the Cowboys and Steelers are our most popular teams, the Raiders and Texans also have a great many fans, and every team has a following. The cake is getting better, and that means more slices.Speaking of cake, Jack Lambert is digging into a gigantic slab of chocolate cake, covered in ice cream. That was preceded by a basket of wings and a giant cheeseburger. His real name is Sergio Perez, and he once played center in college. He and about 50 other fans have come to this restaurant, some wearing jerseys that would impress a fan in a Buffalo Wild Wings in, say, West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Who knew Maurkice Pouncey, No. 53, could travel this far? We call this the Steel Cave, says Antonio Pi?ón, a stockbroker who heads the fan club -- and wears the Santonio Holmes jersey. Its a shame Roethlisberger is not playing. Torn meniscus. We miss Cachetón.Cachetón?It means Cheeky. Like when your grandmother pinches your cheeks so they puff out. Dont you think Ben has those kinds of cheeks?Agreed. But even more striking than the quarterbacks face is the cheek-to-cheek familiarity these fans have with the Steelers. Pittsburgh held a two-day football camp last May in Mexico City, Pi?ón says. A truly great experience, not only for us but for the Steelers. [People were] lining up as early as 6 a.m. The Steelers who came down -- Antwaan Randle-El, Willie Parker, Jerome Bettis, Alejandro Villanueva -- were truly kind, shaking hands, walking slowly so we could take pictures with them. Look, heres a picture of me with Bettis.A quick count reveals that 17 of the 25 TV screens in the restaurant have the Steelers game on. The man in the Bradshaw jersey asks imploringly, When are we ever going to sack Brady?He is Alberto Perez Schoelly, a government economist, and he has brought his two adult sons, one of whom is Sergio. Schoelly, like many Mexicans, became a Steelers fan in the 1970s, when the team was in its heyday and Imevisión (now TV Azteca) started broadcasting games on a regular basis. Ah, the Steel Curtain, he says. I remember the Immaculate Reception like it was yesterday.Just then, the Steelers hit Brady. And Pi?ón leads the group in a cheer:Here we go, Steelers, here we go.Here we go, Steelers, here we go.Alas, the Steelers go on to get beaten rather easily 27-16. But the members of Steelers Nation United Mexico, members who officially number in the thousands, arent just about winning. The point of the club, Pi?ón says, is to get people to leave their houses, get off their couches, to go somewhere for three hours to forget their troubles and shout and scream without having someone tell you to keep it down. Thats whats so great about football.Mark Waller, the NFLs executive vice president for international, has said that in the next 10 years, I think we will have at least one or two franchises outside of the U.S. Given the leagues games in London and Mexico City this season, the front-runners would seem to be Great Britain and Mexico.Whenever I make a presentation, Olivé says, I get kidded by my colleagues because one of the first slides is always a quote from Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. A few years ago, he wrote, In India, people ask you about China, and, in China, people ask you about India: Which country will become the more dominant economic power in the 21st century? I now have the answer: Mexico.A visitor can sense right away why the NFL is bullish on the countrys potential. A man in a Steelers jersey roller-skates in a park with his daughters in pink Steelers shirts. Billboards trumpet Mondays game. An Uber driver, Ulices Torres, says hes a Seahawks fan and really misses Marshawn Lynch. A panhandler in a Raiders stocking cap asks for spare change. An electric company employee, Fernando Navarro, hoists a glass at Hooters with an upper arm that has an exquisite tattoo of the Steelers logo on it. Im going to the Steelers-Cowboys game, he proudly announces.And if the visitor wanders into a small shopping center in the Jardines del Pedregal section of Mexico City, he will find an immaculate store devoted to NFL merchandise. At Carlos Rosado Sports, jerseys from nearly every team are sold, as is playing equipment. High on the wall is a No. 15 New York Jets jersey. But it is not there to pay tribute to Brandon Marshall. It belongs to Carlos Rosado.Once upon a time, the 2003 preseason to be exact, Rosado was a wide receiver for the Jets. Rosado, who had played his football at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, was a veteran of the now-defunct NFL Europe (the Barcelona Dragons and Amsterdam Admirals), and coach Herm Edwards brought him to Jets camp to see whether he had NFL potential.Rosado lasted the whole preseason before getting cut -- the Jets already had Wayne Chrebet and Santana Moss at wide receiver. But he remembers the experience fondly. Herm Edwards was very nice to me, and so were the quarterbacks, Chad Pennington and Vinny Testaverde, Rosado says. I will never forget the thrill when I came out of the tunnel at Giants Stadium for the first time.ddddddddddddBesides being the proprietor of the store, Rosado also works as an analyst for Fox Sports, so he has seen the interest in pro football in Mexico skyrocket since he played. But there is one aspect of the sport that he and other NFL lovers in the country worry about. The growth has been horizontal, Rosado says. I think the next step is to make it vertical. We need to build better teams so that we can find players who can become stars in the NFL.American football is not new to Mexico. Legend has it that the game was introduced in Veracruz in 1896, when college students home from the States and American sailors played some friendly games. By the 1920s, two Mexico City universities had teams: UNAMs Pumas Dorados and the Burros Blancos of Instituto Politécnico Nacional. There was even a 1962 movie -- Juventud Sin Dios (Youth Without God) -- made about the priest who coached the Burros, Father Lambert J. Dehner.In 1955, the Baltimore Colts drafted Alex Esquivel, a running back from Mexico City, in the 24th round. He didnt last long, but in subsequent years a string of Mexican-born kickers caught on: Efren Herrera, Rafael Septien, Frank Corral and Raul Allegre, who helped the New York Giants win Super Bowl XXI and now works as an NFL analyst for ESPN Deportes. Quarterbacks Joe Kapp and Jim Plunkett also became popular because of their Mexican heritage, but they were really products of the American football system.A true Mexican football star is on Olivés wish list, as well. Remember Fernandomania? the executive says. When [Fernando] Valenzuela came out of Mexico and became such a sensation with the Dodgers in the early 80s, he did wonders for the sport and for this country. Can you imagine what would happen if we had a Fernando for football?To that end, the NFL has given significant support to flag football -- tochito -- leagues for younger players. And while the Mexican professional league that debuted in 2016 with four teams is nothing to write home about, there are signs that college football is getting better. In 2009, a Monterrey Tech team beat Blinn College 35-14 in an exhibition game, which was significant because (1) Blinn went on to win the national junior college championship, and (2) Blinns quarterback was Cam Newton, who got the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl six years later. They were so organized, Newton recalls about Monterrey Tech.Top-notch Mexican college football is often compared to Division III football in the States, and judging from a Tuesday afternoon practice by the UNAM Pumas, that seems about right. Except that the Pumas have a little more size and speed for their spread offense than normal D-III schools, and they practice with more intensity than most small colleges. Hey, there have been Division III players in the NFL before.I think we would surprise fans from the United States, says Herminio Rojas, a senior running back and captain of the team. Asked whether he could play in the NFL, Rojas laughed and said, Not me. My favorite player is LaDainian Tomlinson, and I would have no chance of tackling him. Besides, my ambition is to be a doctor.Otto Ulrike Becerril, who took over for highly successful UNAM head coach Raul Rivera this year, says, Mexican players are so much stronger and bigger than they were 10 years ago. I would not be surprised if we produced an NFL impact player in the next few years.Let me put it this way. The wall between the United States and Mexico is getting smaller in football.And then he winked.Theres no getting around it. The future of American football in Mexico hinges in large part on the political climate on both sides of the border, and with the election of Donald Trump as President last week, the forecast is somewhat iffier than it mightve been had his opponent, Hillary Clinton, won. (Mexican President Enrique Pe?a Nieto did phone Trump to congratulate him last week.)Even with Trump as president, an NFL game in Mexico every year is quite plausible. The Steelers, recognizing their strong fan base to the south, have even said they would give up a home game to play in Mexico.John Sutcliffe, the ESPN Deportes analyst who usually travels to every Monday Night Football game but gets to stay home this Monday, doesnt think the outcome of the election will alter the course of the future: I dont think Trump winning will have a negative effect on the games the NFL will bring to Mexico.But a permanent franchise remains a distant dream. I would dearly love to have a team in Mexico, says Sutcliffe. And I know we have the fan base to support it, millions of people who have fallen for the game the same way I did when I first heard Dandy Don and Howard Cosell. But economics and politics may prevent that from happening any time soon.Getting enough fans to sell out one game is a lot easier than getting enough fans willing to buy expensive season tickets, which is the lifeblood of any NFL franchise. But as Olivé points out, the success of the NFL in Mexico does not hinge on whether it gets a franchise. My goal is for the American people to come to see Mexicans for who we really are, vis-à-vis the image that is so often and so unfairly projected. And I think that our mutual passion for the NFL might open some eyes. If I can help do that, mission accomplished.Heres another way to open a visitors eyes. On any given Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night, drop by the badly lit soccer field at Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City, across from the velodrome used for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. There you will find a sort of Star Wars cantina of American football: five or six touch football games, some co-ed, orbiting a practice for Los Tigres de Bengala, an over-40 tackle team in the police league.Its 11 p.m., and balls are flying all over the place. Los Tigres are scrimmaging, laughing and whaling away at each other, mindless of the hour. Their coach, a dashing advertising man named Rodolfo Batman Garcia, is less interested in actually coaching than in telling you about the bikini football league he has organized.Not all of the players are policemen, but almost all of them have two jobs, and that makes their dedication even more impressive.Why do they do this? Batman asks. Because they love football. Isnt that a good enough answer?Steve Wulf Wulf is a senior writer for ESPN. A founding editor of ESPN The Magazine, he has written extensively for Time, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated. He began his journalism career at The Evening Sun in Norwich, N.Y., in 1972 -- which really does make him a senior writer. ' ' '