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Dubas’ Impassioned Response on Goaltender Interference; ‘At Wits End’
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- Dubas’ Impassioned Response on Goaltender Interference; ‘At Wits End’
Kyle Dubas Pittsburgh Penguins Goaltender Interference
Sometimes words don't do themselves justice. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been on the wrong side of all seven of their goaltender interference challenges. They've been on the wrong side of several more initiated by other teams. And with few exceptions, all of the calls have been significant to the outcomes.
What is goalie interference? The Penguins surely can't figure it out.
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Player skates into the crease, contacts the goalie, then gets shoved by the defenseman. Not goalie interference. Skater makes a great effort to avoid putting a skate into the crease, but a defenseman contacts him, and the defenseman's stick contacts the goalie. That is goalie interference.
Yep, the Penguins have been on the wrong side of both of those this season.
And so when Kyle Dubas was asked at the end of his trade deadline press conference Friday about the rule and the league's enforcement, Dubas wove a masterful answerful of incredulity without blame, disgust without scorn, and utter frustration without putting his foot in the crease for a call from the league.
The answer spanned more than four minutes with recent and specific examples from other teams and games. The pauses for effect and the clarity had the room's rapt attention.
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Dubas touched on everything Penguins fans thought and felt, including a passing reference to veteran coaches getting calls, and admitted the vexing calls open a Pandora's box of speculation and public conversation.
Here's just the start:
"I have a massive amount of respect for (the NHL's situation room). I think they're terrific. They have all been around the game for a long time, as players and then in their roles. And it's a great group. I think, for me, frustrated, yeah. And I think the reason for the frustration is if you just take the last four–So if I go Saturday in New York, you know, it's a slight contact with Anthony Mantha , and it's the presumption that if that hadn't happened, that ( Igor Shesterkin ) would have pushed over and made the save. Fine. But then last night, in the Nashville- Boston game, there's a play where Matthew Wood goes in the crease and his skate contacts Jonas Korpisalo. Same thing. The puck goes in in Boston challenges. It stays.
"There's a goal (Thursday) in our game. Josh Doan goes into the crease. On his own. Contacts ( Arturs Silovs ) on his own. Blocker and pad, and then the rebound comes. We have a guy on top of our goalie. So, what's the defenseman's reaction? It's all a split second. It's bang, bang. It's not like there was time elapsed between them. The puck goes in right off the rebound.
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"And then in the Columbus game (Thursday), Columbus– Florida , they have one where (Ivan) Provorov pushes (Jesper) Boqvist into the goalie. Holds him in there. (Columbus's) goalie spins around–He's outside of the blue. And that one is overturned. Ours counts. So, the frustration stems, for me, from the fact that our guys in that room watch every one of these, and they break them down. They bust their ass every single day, the head video coach is an Olympic gold medal video coach, and it puts them in a really tough spot, because it's just tough to know. And so, what's the direction in the end? I have to give it in my role. And when it comes to situations like last night, the team works their ass off, almost kills off the five-minute penalty. We're right there. That happens. I thought for sure that was going to be no goal.
"I thought Doan went in on his own. Contact with the goalie. Did ( Kris Letang ) touch him after? Yeah, he touched him, but barely. And when it stayed up, I was shocked."
"Usually, I understand. I get hot about a lot of things. That's not one of them. (Thursday), I think it's the accumulation and the not knowing that makes it really difficult, and it puts a gigantic amount of pressure, a gigantic amount of pressure on that staff that busts their ass every day and is amongst the best of what they do. And then, I don't know, and then it leads to further discourse. Well, the Columbus one, 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. I don't know whether that's true or not. I'm just saying, then it opens up a whole other Pandora's box. So this is what I mean, I've never had a huge issue with goalie interference. I think I'm probably at my wits' end with it, and it's tough to give direction to the staff."
The remainder of the response is in the video above.
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