Dumba's hit on Pavelski

[Brewin Flames]

Stars' Joe Pavelski helped off after hit by Wild's Matt Dumba

Ryan S. ClarkNHL reporter

Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski had to be helped off the ice in the second period of Monday's Western Conference playoff opener against Minnesota after taking a massive hit from Wild defenseman Matt Dumba.

Pavelski had just fired a backhanded shot on net with 7:58 remaining in the period when Dumba closed in on a shoulder-to-shoulder collision. Dumba's stick struck Pavelski in the face before both players fell to the ground, with Pavelski's head hitting the ice.

 

 

Pavelski, 38, lay still for several seconds and was slow to move as a member of the Stars' athletic training staff rushed onto the ice.

Pavelski was able to get to his knees and speak to the trainer before he skated over to the bench, escorted by the trainer and Stars forward Mason Marchment. Pavelski nearly lost his balance at one point. A second member of the Stars' training staff took over from Marchment when it came to getting Pavelski to the locker room for treatment.

 

The Stars said Pavelski was doing OK afterward, but his status for Game 2 on Wednesday night was uncertain.

 

The Wild defeated the Stars 3-2 in Dallas to take a 1-0 series lead when Ryan Hartman scored 12:20 into the second overtime period, ending a four-plus-hour game that dragged into early Tuesday morning.

"I'm not confident for Game 2," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of Pavelski's status. "He's OK, he's walking out of the rink on his own OK."

 

Dumba was initially assessed a five-minute major penalty for the hit on Pavelski. A review led to the call being changed to a two-minute misdemeanor roughing penalty.

 

"To be honest, I thought it was a clean hit. I figured [the referees] were going to see the same. Shoulder on shoulder," Dumba said. "I don't even know why I got the roughing; probably because I was just in the box already."

 

DeBoer said after the game that he hadn't yet looked at the play in depth.

 

"We have the best officials in the world. They called a five, they reviewed it, which is the right thing to do. If they reviewed and decided it wasn't a bad hit then, you know, I guess it's not for me to argue with that," DeBoer said. "They got to look at it at multiple different angles, and that was the decision they made, so we've got to live with that."

 

Wild coach Dean Evason offered his take.

"You hate to see that. I don't care who you're playing against. You don't want to see anybody get hurt," Evason said. "But I am glad that we have video review. It looks like he hits him in the head; but obviously, if you watch it, the stick hits him. Obviously, we believe they got it right, but you still don't like to see anybody lay on the ice like that."

 

While Pavleski remained down on the ice, a scrum broke out between the teams that led to Stars forward Max Domi getting entangled with Dumba. Domi's right glove came off as he started swinging at Dumba. Any potential fight between the two was quickly ended with two officials and Wild star forward Kirill Kaprizov getting in the way.

 

Domi was given a 10-minute misconduct.

 

"I didn't really see the actual hit real time, just saw Joe lying there," Domi said.

 

Asked about Dumba's penalty being reduced from a five-minute major to a minor, Domi responded, "I trust that they're going to make the right call. So whatever they saw, they saw and made the review. ... It's part of the game."

 

In 2018-19, Pavelski sustained a head injury following a hit from Cody Eakin during a first-round series between the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights. Pavelski, who later told reporters that he had a concussion, required eight stitches after the back of his head slammed against the ice in the third period of Game 7.

 

Pavelski returned in Game 7 of a second-round series before the Sharks ultimately advanced to the Western Conference finals.

[Brewin Flames]

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Saw this in real time during the game....massive blowup of Pavelski.
Game and competition aside, I really do hope he is alright though.

Within the structure of the game, however, glad to see the Minnesota Wild establish their physical dominance (something I do believe MN has a distinct edge over the Stars on), and set the 'no-nonsense' tone for this series.

As for being a dirty hit, no, I think the hit was clean, BUT, I will admit to the hit being just a bit late, and at the very least, interference should have been called.
Dumba got the roughing, but that was only after Max Domi engaged him.

I've seen where refs allow longer, sometimes shorter, amounts of time from when the puck leaves a players stick to when another player can hit him.
Apparently that is one of those "official descretion" things that does tend to drive players, coaches and fans crazy, but it is a thing.
Refs thought it was a timely enough hit, but again, I can see the argument for being late.

High hit? Head shot? Leaving his feet? All nonsense
Hit was clearly shoulder to shoulder.... the head was not the primary point of contact..... and Dumba's feet were on the ice, even though he did lift upwards, but that happened AFTER contact, likely a balance issue.
Anyone who has collided with anyone else or any THING else will know your body can go in any number of ways without your permission to do so.

Will the league offices get involved?
I hope not.
Don't see why.
If they do, then it will be yet another case where the end result (Pavelski  hurt) is dictating the course of action, rather than the rule, the call on the ice, or any perceived intent by the hitting player....all the latter seemingly already worked out and decided.

[Math]

Head targeted: no. Within the 0.8-second tolerance between the puck release and the hit: according to Toronto yes, even though it was very close. Overall clean hit: yes. In a sense, Pavelski was very unfortunate to fell like he did and smash his head on the ice. It's a contact sport, **** happens. So towards the NHL rule book, it is legal.

 

What bothers me more is the fact that these kind of hits are still being tolerated while the League supposedly tries to suppress all actions that tend to injure players. The hit was not meant to create separation because Pavelski already released the puck and wasn't a threat anymore, plus being on a vulnerable position. I agree that it's a contact sport, the goal to finish all your checks in defenders' jargon, but on that specific actions I don't see the purpose of it. I love when it's getting tough, when there are battles and these typical playoffs stuff, I understand both parties but it's just these kind of specific hits that bugs me a bit in nowadays hockey where protection gear has really become lethal weapons. But the Stars also weren't prepared for this physical battle that was written all over the place, and that's on them too. 

 

I watched all comments and opinions on the various french broadcasts and all agree on one point: the winner of this series will be damaged as hell in the second round and more injuries will occur.

[JR Ewing]

This was a fair and clean hit with unfortunate results.

 

[IllaZilla]

Dumba's lucky Matthew Tkachuk wasn't around or he would have made him fight...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

15 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

Dumba's lucky Matthew Tkachuk wasn't around or he would have made him fight...

Probably.

Dumba likely obliges, maybe gets pummeled, but answers the bell.

 

But then both go off for fighting, Tkachuk likely gets the extra 10, maybe the gate, and Dumba then, at the cost of himself, would have removed a lead veteran AND Tkachuk from the ice.

 

Win win for the Wild

 

 

[Brewin Flames]

Plain and Simple....clean hit, at best a 2 min minor for interference.

 

 

[yave1964]

2 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

This was a fair and clean hit with unfortunate results.

 

This.

 

  Love a god clean nasty game changing hit. This is playoff hockey baby

[thegx.ca]

Good hit and Dumba not afraid to fight afterwards either

[Math]

I've to admit it was pretty dumb by Domi to go after Dumba for retaliation and punch him while the refs was trying to separate them. His 10' misconduct caused the Stars to play with only three lines for more than the half of the second period and that's when momentum clearly shifted. You wanna go after him? Do it the legal way, in the game. Or even better: score goals instead and win the game.

[flyercanuck]

On 4/18/2023 at 6:53 PM, Math said:

I've to admit it was pretty dumb by Domi to go after Dumba for retaliation and punch him while the refs was trying to separate them. His 10' misconduct caused the Stars to play with only three lines for more than the half of the second period and that's when momentum clearly shifted. You wanna go after him? Do it the legal way, in the game. Or even better: score goals instead and win the game.

 

Brains have never ran in the family.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

14 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Brains have never ran in the family.

 

Word was, back in the day, local police wanted to hire Tie Domi's forehead to break down doors of known drug dealers, but Domi got better offers from the NHL....but you know, maybe that was just rumor