ST. LOUIS -- Let's be honest, when Jordan Binnington steps onto the ice, expect the unexpected.
He can stand on his head and be superlative, and he can also have moments where you wonder how he makes some of the saves he does. All goalies have their nights when they can't stop a thing.
But the 2019 Stanley Cup champion can also have his moments that, call it whatever you want: get a rise out of the crowd (good at home, bad on the road), irritating, agitating, piss off opponents with his flare for emotional moments. Heck, he's even tossed a water bottle at an opponent (see Nazem Kadri) during a postgame interview.
It happened again on Wednesday night when the Blues, in the end, imploded in an 8-5 loss against the Minnesota Wild, on national TV on TNT, late into a March night.
At 12:25 of the second period when Minnesota's Ryan Hartman scored a power-play goal to give the Wild a 5-4 lead -- one of their five second-period goals -- the Wild forward skated through the crease as Binnington's back was to him after the Blues goalie was sprawled over after trying to make a save on yet another Blues defensive zone blunder that resulted in an open net. But instead of making a left turn to go celebrate the goal -- as Hartman said in his postgame comments -- with teammate Mats Zuccarello, he skated through the crease, tripping over the back of Binningtons legs.
That set the wheels in motion. Binnington got upset.
Binnington got up, went after Hartman and popped him with his blocker hand, which is a no-no, and cause for an automatic ejection, which he got, that set all the fisticuffs in motion.
As multiple players converged to the right of the Blues goal, Binnington was pulled out of the pile by linesman David Brisebois. Binnington shed his blocker off his hand, and there was a reason. Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who had jokingly made the comment days before that he wouldn't mind getting into a goalie fight, nearly got his wish. The veteran came down the ice wanting one, but linesman Ryan Galloway quickly got in between him and Binnington while Brisebois had his hands full.
In Binnington fashion, he got the crowd to erupt even more and they obliged. It all ended with Binnington getting a five-minute match penalty and two minutes for goalie leaving the crease, Hartman received two for unsportsmanlike conduct and Fleury got two minutes for goalie leaving the crease.
Let me be clear here, Hartman knew what he was doing. He did his best to sell it that it was an unavoidable bumping. Baloney.
All he has to do is make a turn to his left, go meet Zuccarello in the left face-off circle where he was, there was no need to go and make contact through the crease.
That's what Binnington's point was, and this time, I agree with him.
Many didn't and voiced their displeasure on whatever social media platform they could, and quite frankly, I don't care.
"We know the type of player he is," Binnington said of Hartman. "I actually like his game, to be honest. I've played against him since the jungle days for a while now. He plays the game hard and I respect it and it's no problem. It's kind of how it played out and it's all good.
"He knows what he's doing. He's good at it. Like I said, I like his game, plays hard, maybe dives a little bit much but for the most part, pretty solid. They're a tough team to play against. It's not the outcome we wanted today."
Binnington stood in front of the media and took all questions coming at him. He's been here before, vilified from those detractors on the outside, and there have been times where he's deserved it.
Not this time.
And even coach Craig Berube, who's called his goalie out before for what's been called antics, was not going to chastise his goalie this time, nor should he.
"Well [Hartman] went right in the crease and hit Binnington, so 'Binner' reacted, which I don't really have a problem with," Berube said. "The guy went right in there. Now I'm not going to condone hitting like he did. That's going to be a match every time, but he's reacting on what Hartman did."
Referees Gord Dwyer and Kelly Sutherland, two veteran officials, felt the same. They gave Hartman an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, knowing that Hartman knew exactly what he was doing.
The fire had to have already been lit, however.
When Mason Shaw scored at 6:52, Minnesota's third goal in a span of 1:58 to give the Wild a 4-3 lead, the Blues called a time out, and as he was heading back to his crease, words were being traded back and forth between Binnington and the Wild bench. They knew there was a chance to get him off his game, because they've seen it before.
And when the damn broke, all hell broke loose. But give the Wild forward credit though for knowing he could get under Binnington's skin, knowing he was probably on edge anyway, a shrewd, veteran move.
"It’s nothing new from him. He’s been doing stuff like this for a while," Hartman said of Binnington. "I was skating over to 'Zucc' and realized he was sliding out from trying to make the save. Bumped him. He was talking to our benches five minutes leading into that. You knew he was going to do something. So, obviously, when they have a guy like that, it’s nice to get to beat on him.
"Those blockers aren’t soft. We don’t have much protection on our face. I’d say so (it was a cheap shot)."
Fair enough, but I don't buy for one second Hartman's contact was coincidental.
Binnington was out after being hung out to dry yet again by his teammates, which is what the Wild were wanting, and which is why Wild coach Dean Evason didn't overreact to what he had witnessed.
"I don’t think anything of it," Evason said. "It’s old school hockey. It looked familiar to me."
Best quote to come out of Minnesota's room tonight. Well, I have to give it to Fleury for the "nutsack" comment when he talked about Binnington jabbing one of the Wild's players in the first period. That was good, but for Evason, it was even better.
Since Binnington wasn't able to stay in the fight on this night, Brayden Schenn -- again -- was manning up, ready to step in and do what he does -- stand up for his teammates, particularly the goalie.
He asked Hartman minutes later if he wanted to go, and for whatever the reason, Sutherland issued a 10-minute misconduct penalty to Schenn, who was none too happy about it and slammed his stick, breaking it against the glass as he left for the locker room.
"Yeah, I haven't seen the replay, but that's rule No. 1, I guess, as far as I'm concerned," Schenn said. "I guess that's how I've been taught anyways. Obviously 'Binner' is a fiery guy and I've fought Hartman before ... and that's all there really was to it.
"... At the time, 'Binner' wasn't happy with what happened. I don't know, I just pushed [Hartman], asked him to fight and got a 10-minute misconduct."
Forget about a Schenn-Hartman fight, how about that Binnington-Fleury fight?
I would have loved seeing that. Imagine the ratings for TNT had it happened!
"I would have liked to see it," Schenn said. "Two recognizable goalies, on TNT, would've been good for the league. People talk about that stuff. But I guess I'm not a ref and I can't make those decisions in the heat of the moment.
"You just would've loved to see it -- Binner vs. Marc-Andre Fleury on TNT. If you're looking for viewership and ratings, and people talking about the game, that's one way to do it."
Was Binnington up for it, sure sounds like it? And he wasn't taken aback to see 'Flower' make his appearance down the ice.
"I'm not surprised. I kind of think it was our moment, but I got nothing but respect for Fleury too," Binnington said. "He's a legendary goalie. Coming down there, shows a lot about him.
"It kind of felt like it was the moment, but I'm sure they're told not to let the goalies go. That's the game, that's hockey. That was full of emotion period and game and it was exciting. The rink was very loud. That's it."
Give me Joseph. Give me Cheveldae, damn it! It would have been legendary. Now that's something Fleury can add to his resume. And Binnington too.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdd7wfLOHZQ[/embed]
I've let Binnington hear about poor play before, about moments where I feel he stepped out of bounds, but not here. He's used these instances to fire up the troops in the past and it's worked. He tried again, and will continue to try again. Perhaps it's time for his teammates to back him up for a chance, which I felt they could have in the immediate aftermath and eventually tried doing once they knew what was going on.
"Maybe a situation like that, I think when you get scored on, your mind goes different places, right, of being pissed off yourself for getting scored on," Schenn said. "Whether there's five guys, or four guys, on the ice, some see it and some don't. I guess as teammates, what this team has been built on for a long time is culture and sticking up for one another and stick up for your goalie. That case, I think there's been a lot worse where guys have jumped in. That was just the heat of the moment type of thing. Once 'Binner' was in there, you see guys go in there real fast. It's not like guys don't care about our goalie or care about one another in here. That's not what it's about. Like I said, at that time, you see guys jump in for him once it happens. He didn't get run over, he just got pushed or bumped or whatever and it set him off, and once you see him go in, you see everyone with him. That's a different case than him getting ran over by, whatever, Kadri in the playoffs, it's a different situation."
Feisty Jordan Binnington will continue to be a ratings boost for the league. He'll also be the talk around the league, and you know what, I like it. A little spice in what has been an uncharacteristic down year for the Blues is a good thing.
Imagine had the same thing happened at the other end with the golden boy wearing the golden pads. Fleury would have been equally as upset. Maybe not in the same manner but it would have been addressed. That's the whole point.
Binnington has had his moments of, 'Why does he do that?' Tonight wasn't one of them.