Even with the Toronto Maple Leafs without Austin Matthews and Matthew Knies, the St. Louis Blues could not take advantage of the weakened side and come home with the victory.
However, for one of the few times this season, the blame cannot be put on the goaltending. Jordan Binnington has struggled this season with poor play and inconsistency, but yesterday’s game might have been one of his best games of the season.
The Blues and the fans are hoping that he is starting to turn over a new leaf, and we could expect more quality starts moving forward.
The goaltending struggles
The Blues lead the league this season in goals against, and if they want to turn their season around, it has to start with better goaltending. It will not change overnight, but the game against the Maple Leafs is a start.
After a rough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he conceded five goals in a shootout loss, he rebounded with a strong showing last night. Binnington stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced in the game, but it was not enough to stop some late-game heroics.
Strong despite defensive woes
Binnington kept the Blues alive early in the game as the Maple Leafs outshot the Blues 10 to four in the first period. Both of Toronto’s goals in regulation encompass the Blues' struggles on defence. The first goal came off a turnover in their own zone, and Brayden Schenn failed to recover a bouncing puck that found its way to Jake McCabe, who fires a wrister that beats a heavily screened Binnington. On the second goal, the Blues fail to pick up the trailing Steven Lorentz, who fires home an easy chance to give the Maple Leafs the lead.
Besides those moments of sloppy defence, the Blues and Binnington played a solid game against the Maple Leafs. Binnington was steady and did not let any weak opportunities get by him. He had a couple of key saves late in the first period during a four-minute penalty kill after Tyler Tucker took a double-minor for high-sticking.
It took a highlight reel goal by William Nylander in overtime to end the game, or we could have been talking about how Binnington kept the team alive long enough to will them to victory.
Binnington back on track?
Binnington has a goals against average of 3.30 and a save percentage of .872 so far this season. Those numbers are not good enough for a team that believed they were a playoff team this season and for a player who was coming into this season as the unquestioned starting goalie for Team Canada in the Olympics. But the Blues are hoping that last night’s Binnington is the one we will be seeing on a regular basis.
He has the ability to get red hot and keep the team in games when they start off slow, and with the team’s defensive struggles, the Blues will need Binnington to be a key reason why they win in every game he starts. He has put together some quality starts in his last five games, notably against the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames, and the Maple Leafs, but got chased halfway through the game against the Washington Capitals and let five go by him in the game against the Flyers.
If the team wants to get back in the playoff hunt, Binnington will need to string more quality starts together in a row, and yesterday was a step in the right direction. Now the Blues need him to build on it.