Kraken challenge for goalie interference the hot topic of Game 4 loss

A turning point in Tuesday’s Game 4 between the Kraken and the Stars — the goal that sent Dallas up 3-0 — drew some passionate responses.

“I have no idea what the hell goalie interference is anymore. I really don’t,” Kraken winger Jared McCann, who returned to the lineup after a six-game absence due to injury, said. “I don’t think anybody does in this league.

“We thought it was guaranteed goalie interference. He made contact with (Philipp Grubauer) and the puck went in — it was pretty obvious. I don’t know what else to say.”

Directly from the 2022-23 NHL rule book: “Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.”

Dallas’ Jamie Benn backed toward the crease. From the camera angle behind the goal, it looked as if at least the back half of Benn’s skate was on the line, with Grubauer on or near the border between his domain and chaos. The two made contact as Grubauer pushed Benn’s arm with his glove, bouncing off him off balance.

Grubauer slid across the crease and attempted to set up, but he wasn’t in ideal position for Max Domi’s eventual shot. Benn got a bump from Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy and wound up screening Grubauer to some degree. His movements from there could be translated as due diligence — an effort to avoid further contact as he turned around, throwing his hips backward away from Grubauer.

NHL playoffs Kraken vs. Dallas Stars

More

Grubauer’s glove arm shot up as soon as the puck entered the net, and he stood out of his crouch. On the Kraken bench, coach Dave Hakstol and his assistants huddled around a replay and decided what to do.

“I felt like Grubi got blown out of the crease,” Hakstol said. “Regardless of the amount of time in between, to be able to reset was impossible. He got blown too far out of the crease on that play.

“In my opinion there’s really something wrong there, and that’s how I evaluate it. I don’t look for something that’s close, or (go) splitting hairs on it. Grubi did not have a chance to do his job on that play. And if I look at it, he never really got reset.”

Stars coach Pete DeBoer saw it differently.

“It looked to me like there was a little bit of a bump. I thought he reset,” he said. “And then I thought, (from) my perspective, there was a second bump, but he got pushed in on the second one, and it was outside the paint. So I thought it was the right call.”

The review was a long one. The Kraken bench’s unsuccessful challenge resulted in a delay-of-game penalty. A scrum sent McCann and Adam Larsson to the box to join Ryan Donato, who was serving the team penalty. Then the Stars made the controversial sequence a costly one. Joe Pavelski scored his sixth of the series, the second Dallas power-play goal of the night.

The officials were booed loudly as they came onto the ice to start the third period.

Another relevant excerpt from the rule book: “In all Coach’s Challenge situations, the original call on the ice will be overturned if, and only if, a conclusive and irrefutable determination can be made on the basis of video evidence that the original call on the ice was clearly not correct. If a review is not conclusive and/or there is any doubt whatsoever as to whether the call on the ice was correct, the original call on the ice will be confirmed.” The call on the ice was a goal, so there needed to be conclusive evidence otherwise.

“I didn’t get an explanation on why it was a good goal,” Hakstol said after the game. “I can go through the theories as to how it was broken down.”

He didn’t elaborate, but there are a few obvious ones. The positioning at the front of the crease might have played in, and Grubauer’s ability to reset. If the shot had come after the initial contact, it might have gone a different way. But the time elapsed, short as it was, could have had an impact, as did Soucy’s bump of Benn.

Jaden Schwartz, who scored two of the Kraken’s three goals in an eventual 6-3 loss, wasn’t on the ice and said he didn’t get a good look. On the bench, they weren’t sure which way it was going to go.

From any vantage point, it was costly.

“It’s not ideal,” Schwartz said.