St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington will miss the remainder of his team’s second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche due to a knee injury, the team announced Sunday.
The injury occurred just 6:45 into Game 3 on Saturday night when Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri bowled into the netminder while going for a loose puck.
There certainly didn’t seem to be much malice behind the collision, though hard feelings remain. Kadri claimed that Binnington threw a water bottle at him during his postgame conversation with TNT.
“Just a loose puck. I tried to get my stick in there and I just tried to poke the puck free. I think their weak side defenseman came over and kind of bumped me,” Kadri said. “I hope he’s alright.
“I’m not sure if he just tried to throw a water bottle at me or not.”
"Not sure if he just threw a water bottle at me" 😳
Nazem Kadri appears to have a water bottle thrown at him while discussing the collision with Binnington 🔎 pic.twitter.com/6XLbAdxEEm
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 22, 2022
These two have a bit of a history together, too. Binnington swung his stick near the head of Kadri during a regular season in October earlier this year.
But with the Blues down 2-1 in the series to one of the best teams in the NHL, the loss of Binnington is immense.
The 28-year-old goalie who helped carry St. Louis to a Stanley Cup in 2019 reclaimed his spot as the team’s starter from Ville Husso during the first round of the postseason after a difficult regular season.
In six games, he’s stopped 167 of 176 shots faced for a sterling .949 save percentage. He was a major reason why the Blues managed to get by the Minnesota Wild before stealing Game 2 from the Avalanche in Colorado.
“It’s always tough. Binner is a heart and soul (player), playing unbelievable,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “It took the momentum away… Things like that happen, we’re a good team and we could have done a better job of getting momentum back.”
After shutting out the Wild in Game 1 of the first round, Husso allowed 13 goals over the next three games to get benched in favor of Binnington.
He’ll reassume starting duties while getting backed up by Charlie Lindgren, who has just 26 games of NHL experience under his belt.
