Dumba aiming to continue resurgence for Wild

Matt Dumba had last season ended by an injury, and the Minnesota Wild defenseman remains hopeful he'll get a chance to complete this one.

Dumba, who missed the final 50 games of 2018-19 after having surgery to repair a ruptured pectoral muscle, said Thursday he was finally getting back to playing his best before the NHL paused this season March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

"It is weird," Dumba said. "Two seasons, I never thought things like that would happen, either of them. And here we are just sitting here. So we'll see how it pans out. I hope we can finish this."

Dumba was on his way to his best NHL season when he was injured on Dec. 15, 2018. He led NHL defensemen with 12 goals in his 32 games and was on pace to shatter his NHL career high of 14 from 2017-18.

Following his surgery, all Dumba could do was watch the remainder of the 2018-19 season and work to be ready in time for training camp. Dumba was ready but struggled to get back to playing at the same level he was before being injured. In 69 games this season, the 25-year-old scored 24 points (six goals, 18 assists) and was minus-7.

"I think just at the start of the year, it was just finding it again after that big of a break," Dumba said. "It's hard to come back from an injury like that and I just found that out. It's trusting yourself, trusting your injury and [that] you've done everything the right way to be prepared. … But I did like how I kind of transitioned those last couple weeks or month before the season was [paused].

"I think I was really finding my game again and starting to get back to where it was."

Dumba said he believes focusing so much on rehabbing his injury last offseason prevented him from doing some of the skill work he usually does. He's trying to make up for that, waiting at his home in Calgary for the season to resume.

"I'm just working on that stuff right now, my stick-handling, and trying to keep my game tight just for the possibility of us coming back," he said.

Like Dumba, the Wild (35-27-7) were playing their best hockey of the season before play was paused. Minnesota was 15-7-1 in its last 23 games, including 8-4-0 since Dean Evason replaced Bruce Boudreau as coach Feb. 14. The Wild are one point behind the Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

"There was so much hard work that went into it and to see that all go to waste would be very unfortunate," Dumba said. "So I guess we'll see what happens."