St. Louis Blues: 3 Reasons To Stick With Jordan Binnington For Now

Earned it

One thing Blues fans have grown accustomed to, whether they agree or not, is goalies getting rewarded for a good game.

It wasn’t always the case, but definitely under Ken Hichcock, the goalies would get an extra look after a great performance. If you got a shutout, you were almost guaranteed to be between the pipes the next time out.

That tradition has continued with Craig Berube. I don’t expect it to change for Game 5 against the Minnesota Wild.

Let’s not overstate things. Binnington did not defeat the Wild single-handedly.

He was an integral part of that win, however. With the Blues squandering several power play chances in the first period of Game 4, Binnington had to come up large once the Wild started hemming St. Louis into their zone late in the game.

Roughly midway through that contest, Binnington had only faced nine shots and given up a goal. Statistically, it did not look great on Binnington, even though he had made a couple good stops.

That all turned around in the late stages of the second period and the third. Binnington was under siege.

He may have only faced 30 shots total, but a lot of those second half shots were of high quality. St. Louis still had trouble clogging up the slot, so Binnington had to be confident in his positioning.

Again, Binnington didn’t need to make those highlight reel saves, but he earned the first star of the game. He’s earned another look in goal in the next game.