11:47 AM: Blues head coach Craig Berube has confirmed that Binnington will be out for the rest of the team’s series against the Avalanche.
9:26 AM: Last night’s contest between the Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues proved to be a costly one for both sides. The Avalanche lost defenseman Samuel Girard for the rest of the playoffs to a broken sternum, and per reports, the Blues have lost starting goaltender Jordan Binnington for what could end up being several weeks. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports that “good sources” say that Binnington suffered a “possible knee sprain” and could be out for “multiple weeks.”
Binnington suffered his knee injury in the first period of yesterday’s game thanks to a collision with his teammate, Calle Rosen, as well as Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri. With just over 13 minutes left to play in the first period, Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen fired a shot off Binnington, which left a rebound at the top of the crease. Kadri went to pursue the rebound, and Rosen battled him to prevent that scoring chance. As a result of Kadri’s attempt at the loose puck and Rosen’s presence in the same area, Kadri and Rosen both slammed into Binnington. Binnington initially attempted to warm up for a return to action under the watchful eye of a team trainer, but he seemingly aggravated the injury, which necessitated his exit in favor of backup Ville Husso.
Naturally, the play has been controversial, especially so thanks to Kadri’s disciplinary history. After the game, Blues coach Craig Berube was asked about the incident and gave a simple answer: “Look at Kadri’s reputation, that’s all I have to say.” Despite that general sentiment from many on the Blues’ side, it does not seem as though Kadri will face any repercussions from the league for the incident. Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest reports that the NHL Department of Player Safety is “not expected” to issue any reaction to the incident.
The loss of Binnington comes as a major blow to the Blues’ hopes against the Avalanche. While Binnington’s inconsistent play saw him lose the starter’s crease to Husso in the regular season, he has taken it back with his play in the playoffs. Binnington has a 4-0-1 record and a .949 save percentage in these playoffs, numbers that are significantly better than Husso’s 1-3-0, .891 marks. St. Louis is now down 2-1 in their series, so with Binnington now injured the Blues will need Husso’s regular-season form to re-emerge if they want to have any hope of continuing their season.
Clean by the book but avoidable…
Personally I think Kadri intended for there to be contact with Binnington
You believe so because you want to believe it. Lazy thinking because you’re struggling (I get it) with the disappointment of losing an important player for the playoffs.
Go Colorado, sweep them fast!
Karma is a binnington.
Well Avs lost Girard so I guess it’s only fair.
I don’t think Kadri tried to avoid the contact but his skate clearly buckled so I don’t think he intended to go into him like he did and Rosen didn’t exactly try to stop him. I don’t know what it is with defencmen in the game today shoving players into their own goalies. So dumb.
How exactly could Rosen shove Kadri with his back turned to him? I won’t deny Kadri is definitely going for the loose puck in front which is fine, but he saw an opening to hit Binnington and took it.
Qbert, you’re ridiculous. He got hit in front of the crease in a high speed game. You think he had time to choose his trajectory and intend to injure binnington?! Rosen is the one who drove his man into his own netminder in a frantic attempt to recover from his own poor positioning.
Again I ask. How can Rosen shove Kadri when he isn’t even facing him. Kadri charged in for the loose puck and went straight through Rosen and into Binnington. Nothing ridiculous about it.
No he didn’t.
You’re thinking of Barbashev on Girard, the kill shot.
Watching the play again, Rosen absolutely hits Kadri. Watching Kadri’s skate angle, he starts doing a hockey stop and Rosen steps in front of him knocking Kadri off balance with a sort of hip check which renders him unable to stop his momentum as he was knocked off his skates. He didn’t deliberately go in for a hit on Binnington, that’s ridiculous. I see nothing malicious like that on this play.
Of course, Blues fans then turn to death threats against Kadri like the classy fans they are and police and security need to be ramped up. Great look there, Blues fans!
Kadri was making a play on a loose puck in front of the net. Add to that a dman is driving him into Binnington resulting in the injury.I don’t see that as an intentional maneuver as much as it an unfortunate result.
And yeah, some of the St Louis fans need to get perspective. Death threats and racial animosity while hiding behind a keyboard is gutless.