The St. Louis Blues endured a long night in their meeting with the rival Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center Wednesday night. The Blues got off to a sharp start when they scored inside the first 30 seconds, but the game quickly got out of hand as the Blackhawks rolled to a 7-3 triumph.
Chicago scored 4 goals in the second period after tying the score in the first. The Blackhawks scored 2 more goals in the final period, and Blues head coach Jim Montgomery called goalie Jordan Binnington over to the St. Louis bench on the final goal by Louis Crevier.
However, a strange thing happened at that point. Instead of skating over to the bench while backup goalie Joel Hofer took the ice, Binnington stayed in goal.
Was this insubordination on the part of the feisty Binnington? He may be known for speaking up and acting out from time to time, but Montgomery tried to explain what happened.
“We had signaled back to make the goalie switch, and the lines of communication on the headset were not clear initially,” Montgomery said, per The Athletic. “Joel Hofer wasn’t ready, and it kind of symbolizes last night’s play. Our special teams weren’t ready. Joel Hofer wasn’t ready.”
While the Montgomery explanation makes sense, there was some speculation that Binnington was not looking at the St. Louis bench because he did not want to come out of the game.
Blues and Jordan Binnington have had tough season
Binnington burst on the scene in the NHL during the 2018-19 season, and the goalie went on to lead the Blues to the Stanley Cup that season. He was also in net for the 4 Nations Face-Off last year for Canada, and he was the winning goaltender.
This year has been a bit more challenging for both the goaltender and his team. The Blues are in 7th place in the Central Division with a 17-19-8 record for 42 points. Binnington has an 8-11-6 record with a 3.55 goals against average and a leaky .871 save percentage.
