When St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington fully arrived on the NHL scene during the 2019-20 NHL season, everything came up aces.
In his first start on January 7, 2019, he shut out the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0. In his first 20 starts, Binnington, 29, went 16-3-0-1 with a 1.70 goals-against average, a .933 save percentage, and five shutouts in taking the Blues from last place in the league to a playoff spot.
Binnington finished the regular season with a 24-5-0-1 record, a 1.89 goals-against average, a .927 save percentage, and five shutouts. He then went on to lead the team to their first Stanley Cup as he won 16 games while posting a 2.46 goals-against average, a .914 save percentage, and one shutout.
He was named to the All-Star game the following season as he went 30-13-0-8 with a 2.56 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage, and three shutouts. Unfortunately for the Blues and Binnington, he was awful in the playoffs as he lost all five games he played, and he posted a 4.72 goals-against average and a.851 save percentage.
The numbers continued to trend the wrong way in 2020-21 as his goals-against average rose to 2.65, and his save percentage dipped to .910. He then once again struggled in the playoffs as he lost all four games he started while posting a 3.59 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage.
Binnington was not great in 37 games last season. He went 18-14-0-4 with a 3.13 goals-against average, a .901 save percentage, and two shutouts.
With that said, he was great in the playoffs last year until he got hurt in the second round against the Colorado Avalanche. He finished the postseason with a 4-1 record, a 1.72 goals-against average, and a .949 save percentage.
When he performed well in the playoffs last season, many figured that he would carry his strong play into this season. That has not been the case.
As of this writing (Wednesday, February 1), Binnington is 18-18-0-3 with a 3.27 goals-against average, a .892 save percentage, and two shutouts. Not only is he not playing well, but the rest of his team is struggling as well, as the team is 23-25-3 and sits eight points out of the second wild-card spot.
This is not about Binnington’s effort or anything like that. There is no doubt that he competes every night and that he does what he can to help his team win.
With that said, he is simply not stopping the puck enough. He is allowing a lot of soft goals, giving up a lot of juicy rebounds, not coming up with the big save when his team needs one the most, and, more importantly, not winning enough games.
Secondly, his numbers continue to slip in the wrong direction with each passing season. For someone who is in his prime, his numbers should be getting better, but that has not been the case for Binnington.
He also seems to be more focused on upsetting opposing players by bumping into them either during the action or when going across the ice when the period ends. Binnington should really be focused on stopping the puck.
There is no doubt that it has been a long and difficult season for both Binnington and the Blues. With Binnington being in the middle of a six-year, $36 million contract, it would be great for both the club and the goaltender to get their games back on track sooner rather than later.
