The St. Louis Blues are in a bit of a weird situation at the moment. The club has seemingly shaken off its disastrous start to the season, but hasn’t quite turned things around.
The team is 5-4-1 in its last 10 games and has gotten much better goaltending of late. But it seems that Jordan Binnington’s recent starts have done little to quell the conversation regarding his performance this season.
In particular, an article published in Daily Faceoff looked at how Father Time has caught up to certain players. Among them, it seems the venerable elder has gotten a grip on Binnington. The piece offers one compelling exhibit as evidence of Binnington’s seeming decline: His .875 save percentage this season.
Now, let’s be honest for a second. Teams and goalies have ups and downs. There’s an ebb and flow in professional sports that transcends short-term performances. But then again, it’s worth looking at long-term trends to determine if short-term dips are nothing more than aberrations.
In particular, Binnington’s goals saved above expected show a marked decline. According to the piece, Binnington went from +15.1 goals saved above expected in 2023-24 to -3.7 last season. That number has further fallen to -14.8 this season.
What does that point to? Well, as much as we’d like to pin the blame on the team in front of him, it hasn’t been solely the defense’s case. It’s not like Binnington has been standing on his head night in and night out.
As a matter, it’s been Binnington’s seeming incompetence that has been a major part of the Blues’ derailed season. But then again, there’s reason to believe Binnington may still have some miles left on his tires.
Binnington and Blues could still turn things around
One thing that must be considered is how notoriously streaky Jordan Binnington can be. He’s the sort of goalie who can flip a switch and go on a marvelous run. We saw that last season at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He outdueled Connor Hellebuyck in a game for the ages.
But is that something reasonable to expect this season? Can Binnington turn things around? The evidence points toward that being a reasonable assumption. Binnington’s mind functions peculiarly, seemingly going into overdrive at a moment’s notice.
So, could that be something on the horizon for the Blues’ starting netminder? Possibly. But the Blues will be keeping a close eye on their number-one netminder. Experience shows that Binnington tends to excel during the second half of the season. However, this season may have gotten so far away that it may be too late for Binnington and the Blues to do much to turn things around.