Philipp Grubauer, a goaltender notorious for his quiet and gentlemanly demeanor, took to Instagram on Monday to celebrate the Colorado Avalanche’s first-round sweep of the St. Louis Blues.
Grubauer posted a photo of himself with Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington as the two were separated by officials.
“Memories from Round 1,” Grubauer wrote.
The photo is from a line brawl that occurred at the tail end of the series’ first game. As the final seconds waned, Blues forward Kyle Clifford cross-checked Patrik Nemeth in the back and then slashed Grubauer in the pads. Grubauer and Nemeth mobbed Clifford in the crease, which was enough for Binnington to skate down and confront Grubauer. The two then screamed at each other.
After the game, Grubauer questioned Binnington’s sincerity to fight telling the press, “If he feels the need to come down and do that stuff and fake punch guys, so be it. … I worry about my game.”
Philipp Grubauer on Jordan Binnington coming down the ice at the end of Game 1: "If he feels the need to come down and do that stuff and fake punch guys, so be it. … I worry about my game. I worry about stopping the pucks."
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) May 20, 2021
The “fake punch guys” line is a nod to a Devan Dubnyk quote from late February.
Binnington got tossed from a game against the San Jose Sharks after he was pulled for surrendering four goals in the first 30:26 of the game. Instead of leaving the ice, Binnington took potshots at the Sharks’ Radim Simek and Erik Karlsson. He then skated towards Devan Dubnyk and shoved him before being separated by officials.
“I guess he’s frustrated,” Dubnyk told reporters. “But I don’t know why he’s skating around pretending to punch guys… I just told him to get off the ice, calm down. He’s 160 pounds. He’s out there swinging at guys… If you want to get into it with somebody, fine, but I don’t know why he was out there fake punching everybody.”
Headline photo: Amanda Bowen/RMNB
