Binnington and the Blues

Jordan Binnington, Blues Goalie. Source: NHL.com

If I told you on December 31, 2018, that the St. Louis Blues would win the 2019 Stanley Cup, you would either call me crazy or bet me $100 so you get free money. But the problem was, if you made that bet, you would be losing $100. See the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues were easily one of the weirdest teams in the history of sports. All it would take to change their season around was a new back stopper.

Heading into the 2018-19 season, the Blues had the 11th best odds to win the Stanley Cup at +3000. With those odds, they were expected to finish with 97.5 points at the end of the regular season. St. Louis would finish off the preseason with a 4-3-0 record, but preseason doesn’t mean much to people that are not on the team. The preseason is only to see what players will make the final cut and really nothing much else. It doesn’t prove how a team will do in the regular season and it definitely won’t prove if a team will win a Cup that season. Now let’s look at the main character, Jordan Binnington. Binnington has been an AHL goalie since the 2014-15 season and has been in the Blues organization since he was drafted in 2011. Binnington has played a total of 1 NHL game in his career before the 2018-19 season, and he would play the opening game in the preseason, losing 3-5. So with these odds and everything else, I’d say St. Louis had high hopes for the 2018-19 season.

They didn’t know how wrong they were going to be. They would proceed to have 3 straight losing months and would drop to dead last in the league by the 2019 New Year. Another issue would be that they would not win multiple games in a row until November 6th and 9th. So by the time it hit New Year’s Eve the Blues would only win 2 games in a row three times, and they would not win more than 2 games in a row for 37 games. Because of this lack of success, the Blues fired coach Mike Yeo on November 19th and replaced him with his assistant coach, Craig Berube. St. Louis would end the 2018 calendar year with a 1-2 loss to the New York Rangers on New Year’s Eve. Going into 2019 the Blues would have a 15-18-4 record totaling up 34 points in 37 games. A couple of days later, the team that the Blues were tied with for dead last, the Ottawa Senators lost in overtime to the Vancouver Canucks, putting St. Louis last in the league.

Standings after January 2, 2019. Source: hockey-reference.com

So this caused St. Louis to shake things up. Before the New Year, St. Louis put underperforming goaltender Chad Johnson on waivers. The next day, he was picked up by the Anaheim Ducks. Causing the Blues to call up AHL goalie, Jordan Binnington. Binnington would be called up the day Johnson was put on waivers. He would be sent down, only to be called up again on January 5th. After a loss by Allen, the Blues would put Binnington in net for the next game, his first of the season. Binnington would shut out the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 in his first-ever NHL start. Allen would play the next game, only to lose again, forcing the Blues to put Binnington in net once again. Binnington would only allow one goal in the 4-1 win against the Canadiens. In fact, Binnington would not let in more than 2 goals until February 12th. Binnington would proceed to keep winning and winning, going 5-1-1 in the month of January. But in February it would only get better. The Blues would have an 11 game winning streak starting on January 23rd. The Blues would win every single game they had at home that month and Binnington would only lose once in the entire 14 game stint. With 2 months left in the season, the Blues would only get better. By now Binnington has earned the role of the starting goalie for the Blues and would continue to win for the team. Binnington would have a record of 6-3-0 in the month of March and even though they lost, the Blues would clinch a playoff spot on March 29th. Binnington would end the season strong with winning all 3 of the games he had in the month of April, winning 2 of them in a shootout. Within 4 short months, Jordan Binnington was able to put the Blues from dead last, to within 1 point of the lead in the Central Division.

Standings on April 6, 2019. Source: hockey-reference.com

Jordan Binnington was able to transform this team into something great. So I’m going to tell you the stats before and after January 2nd. Before January 2nd, the Blues would allow 123 goals in 37 games. After that date, only 100 more goals were given up in 45 games. In those 37 games, the Blues would have a 3.22 Goals Against Average, Binnington and Jake Allen were able to bring that number down to 2.72 by the end of the season. Also, in the 45 games they played, the Goals Against Average was only 2.22. Binnington would end the regular season with a 1.89 GAA, the best in the league. He would also finish with the 4th best Save Percentage with a .927. Binnington would also tie for 6th in the league with 5 shutouts. Of those 100 goals that the Blues gave up in the last half of the season, Binnington only gave up 59 of those. Which would turn out to be the fewest amount for goalies who played more than 30 games. Binnington would also finish with a 24-5-1 record and should have won the Vezina in my opinion.

The playoffs came and Binnington would end up playing every single game. Binnington would help the Blues win the first 2 games of the series against the Jets in Winnipeg, but would then give up the most amount of goals he ever has in one game with a total of 6, giving St. Louis their first loss of the playoffs. The Blues would lose Game 4 as well, but would bounce back and would go on to win the next 2 games to win the series. Binnington and the Blues would once again open up the series with a win against the Dallas Stars. But would drop Game 2. The Blues would bounce back to win Game 3 but would lose 2 straight and would be put one game away from elimination. But the Blues rallied and would win both games; Binnington would only give up 1 goal each game. St. Louis would play the Sharks in the Conference Finals and would drop Game 1. St. Louis would bounce back only to lose once again. Binnington would step up however and would only give up 2 goals in 3 games to finish off the series. Heading to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Blues would play a familiar foe, the Boston Bruins. These 2 teams faced each other in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals when the Bruins swept the Blues. The first 3 games would go just like the previous series. The Blues would lose Game 1, bounce back in Game 2 only to lose again in Game 3. But, in Game 3, the Blues would lose 2-7. Now that would be a new record for Binnington, however, Binnington was pulled after the first 5 goals. The Blues would not look back in Games 4 and 5 as Binnington would only give up 2 goals and 1 goal respectively to put the Blues one game away from their very first cup. Boston wouldn’t back down that easily though as they would win Game 6, 5-1. Binnington and the Blues would come back as a team and seal the cup with a 4-1 win in Game 7, their first in franchise history.

Binnington hoisting the Stanley Cup. Source: cbc.ca (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

However, Binnington would not have as good a playoffs as he did in the regular season. He would finish with a .914 Save Percentage which would tie him for 9th among goalies. His GAA would also be 9th as he finished with a 2.46. Binnington would finish the playoffs with 1 shutout in 26 games. I feel that if he had a better playoffs Binnington would’ve won the Vezina. But maybe this goalie can bring the Blues another cup.

Stats from: hockey-reference.com, wikipedia.org