The NHL is optimistic but still watching the progress on the latest sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins , but in comments aimed at coaches and GMs, perhaps specifically the Pittsburgh Penguins duo who have been at the center of public frustration, commissioner Gary Bettman also offhandedly dismissed the criticism and consternation over goaltender interference reviews.
With a few hours’ notice, Bettman held a small press conference in a side room at PPG Paints Arena just minutes before the puck drop of Game 2 between the Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers . It was an old school shout out your questions affair, and Bettman came prepared to deliver a message to the Penguins and the league on goaltender interference calls.
The Penguins are 0-for-9 on such calls, and have lost several goals that were–against the odds–overturned. This season, goaltender interference challenges have dropped from a 55% overturn rate last season to just 35% this season, meaning coaches who have challenged have lost over two-thirds of the time. The outlier for the stats is the Penguins, who have lost 100% of challenges, but have suffered a higher rate of overturns.
On March 7, Dubas offered a lengthy and passionate rebuttal to the NHL, citing examples and specifics of the rules, concluding with, “I think I’m probably at my wits’ end with it, and it’s tough to give direction to the staff.”
However, Bettman coldly dismissed the possibility of any problems and blamed the teams for poor challenges born of emotion rather than the rules.
“I think the issue comes when people hope that a goal will either be confirmed or overturned, and in the final analysis, you shouldn’t be challenging unless the call is clearly and conclusively wrong, one way or the other,” Bettman said. “Sometimes, strategically, you’ll make the call to support your goaltender. Sometimes you hope you’ll get the results you want, but not goaltender interference. And we’ve had a few video calls over the weekend, and they were all bang on. And sometimes what happens is, and it’s no knock on what the broadcasters do, sometimes the Situation Room has a view that isn’t shown in real time, or sometimes not at all. Then we have to tweet it out. But the situation room does a good job.”
The part which Bettman danced around was indeed there have been numerous calls in which teams felt it was clear cut. The Penguins have had a few, and Dubas also acknowledged that the inconsistency of the calls opened the door to questioning the people involved.
“And then, I don’t know, and then it leads to further discourse. Well, the (similar situation, but opposite ruling in Columbus), was it because they have a veteran coach, and we don’t? It just, it just leads to many things that happen in the game that don’t need to be there,” Dubas said on March 7. “I don’t know whether that’s true or not. I’m just saying, then it opens up a whole other Pandora’s box.”
The NHL is unique among pro sports in that referees or former referees do not run the situation room and, in fact, there isn’t a consistent referee presence in the room–there is a rotation of retired refs in the situation room, but they merely provide input. Former hockey executives Colin Campbell and Kris King are the heads of the process, and they make the final decision, settling debates or overruling the members of the situation room, which also includes former players.
Conversely, the other major North American professional sports leagues rely on conversations with on-ice/field officials and former referees in the situation room. Instead, Bettman went further and offered praise for embattled NHL exec Colin Campbell, who has no refereeing background.
Bettman again defined the controversy as the fault of emotional wants of teams.
“Listen, when you have a rooting interest, or you are in the moment either very passionate or frustrated, you may challenge a call, but in the final analysis, overwhelmingly, they get it right. And remember, in the final analysis, it’s a judgment call … which is why you go with the call on the ice unless it’s conclusively wrong,” said Bettman. “You know, when it was first instituted, we warned coaches and managers this isn’t going to be crystal clear in every situation. It will resort to judgment. Whatever your view of the process is, I guarantee you, it’s much better in terms of getting it right than if we didn’t have video replay. There’s no question … I think Colin Campbell and his people have done a great job with more and more cameras in the dead, in the crossbar from overhead. And so we’re going to get it right overwhelmingly. And there’ll be a few calls where people will debate them, and depending on your interest in the game, you may have a different view.”
While Penguins coach Dan Muse has indeed made a few low-percentage challenges to support his team, there have been several more that met the criteria for goaltender interference and were otherwise inconsistent with previous calls across the league.
This season, the Penguins have endured the gamut of calls. In one instance, the Penguins lost a goal against the Ottawa Senators when their player ( Rickard Rakell ) didn’t contact the goalie–it was the defenseman’s stick–but the situation room overturned the goal, nonetheless. And there was another call in Minnesota that went against the Penguins in which the defenseman initiated contact with a forward near the net and it was the defenseman who contacted the goalie–that call also went against the Penguins.
PHN compiled the Penguins’ goalie interference list with video here.
But those instances were–according to the commissioner–the Penguins challenging in the game’s emotion or simply hoping and they shouldn’t have challenged.
It has been nearly six months since the organization announced that Fenway Sports Group was dumping the team for a healthy profit near 100% to the Hoffmann Family of Companies and CEO Geof Hoffman, but the sale is not yet complete.
By contrast, there were only 10 days from announcement to ratification when FSG bought the Penguins from the Mario Lemieux Group.
“It is a work in progress, but it seems to be on track. These transactions, meaning franchise sales in the major sports, are big deals in every sense of the word, and you have to make sure the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed,” said Bettman. “But everything seems to be progressing.”
It should be noted that Bettman refused specific comment during the NHL’s Global Series games in Stockholm, Sweden, in November, saying it would be inappropriate for him to speak for the team. So, the situation has at least progressed that far.
Bettman tentatively praised the quality of Hoffmann’s interest, but would not set a timeline or ETA, “There’s still work to be done on the approval process by the board, but from everything we hear, they’re very excited and very committed.”
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