Binnington stands on guard for Canada

A doubting nation learns it can trust its goalie in a stirring overtime win over the U.S.

Jordan Binnington

Auston Matthews could have played baseball. Most Scottsdale kids do that, or at least try. But he went to a Coyotes’ game once upon a time and fell under the spell, and when he actually got onto the ice he loved the rush of shooting a black rubber disc that the chubby masked kid on the other team couldn’t see.

Matthews is a 3-time NHL scoring champ and a former MVP, and he’s the captain of the Maple Leafs, a team that controls the systolic and diastolic readouts of an entire country. He has had little reason to regret his career choice.

Then came the overtime period of the Four Nations Faceoff championship game Thursday night.

Three times Matthews, playing for Team USA, stood in the red zone and snapped the wrists that have scored 368 NHL goals. Canada goalie Jordan Binnington was the duck in the shooting gallery. Each time, Binnington stopped those shots and bounced back up.

When a rebound squirted directly to Brady Tkachuk, looming to Binnington’s left, the goalie shifted his shape, the way only goalies do, and stopped the puck with his left skate. There were at least five American shots that could have ended it, and nobody would have made Binnington take the witness stand for letting them go. Eventually the beleaguered Canadian defense met the emergency, and what had been so impossible became so facile: Cale Makar guiding the puck behind the USA net and into the opposite corner, Mitch Marner skating out with it as Matthews and Adam Fox crossed wires on defensive coverage, and Marner putting the puck onto the spring-loaded blade of Connor McDavid, setting up in front of goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

The best player in the world vs. the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and McJesus zapped the puck into a corner Hellebuyck couldn’t reach. Canada won, 3-2, and its roster of Stanley Cup champions and trophy-bearing individuals merged in a hug of relief and joy.

The Four Nations Faceoff wasn’t supposed to be this addictive or emotional, but then one head of state isn’t supposed to lust for another country’s land. “This wasn’t just a win for us,” said Jon Cooper, the Canada coach. “This was a win for 40-million-plus people.”

It was also a win for the competitive urge. At some point during the night the Canadians had to realize that the unmerciful regular season would resume within two days, and that this opportunity to merge their skills against equally worthy opponents had come and gone in eight days. But they and the Americans and the Finns and the Swedes had demanded this chance to take the game higher, to show that five plus five could equal 387, to create something that would resonate beyond time on ice. They did that, and a year from now they’ll do the same thing at the Olympics, along with the Czechs, Swiss, Slovaks and Germans. Since the hockey world holds onto the idea that Russia invaded Ukraine and not the other way around, it’s doubtful that we’ll see Alex Ovechkin, Sergei Bobrovsky, Nikita Kucherov, etc. They will be missed theoretically, but no one came away from the Garden on Thursday saying, “Gee, it would have been so much better with the Russians.”

It was clear the game would come down to one 5-on-5 play. The refs called one penalty all night, a blatant trip by Vincent Trocheck of the U.S., although Canada got away with too-many-men in the late going. There were precious few defensive mistakes, a tight speed limit in the neutral zone, and it took a mighty effort to even get a shot on goal. The Americans blocked 27 shots. Jack Eichel, their most dynamic offensive player, blocked five.

Jake Sanderson, Ottawa’s 22-year-old defenseman, was activated when Charlie McAvoy injured his shoulder early in the tournament. On Thursday his goal put the U.S. ahead, 2-1, and he had five blocked shots and three shots-on-goal. The Americans will always lament McAvoy’s loss, along with the injury that kept Matthew Tkachuk off the ice at the end.

It was such a masterclass of a game that there were almost no offside or icing calls, although the last icing set up a faceoff in front of Hellebuyck, which McDavid won over Matthews. Maybe the icing kept the USA from using Jaccob Slavin, its best defenseman in this series. Maybe it enabled Canada to get Makar onto the ice. And Hellebuyck had been his brilliant self through most of it. But goaltenders are like Supreme Court justices. They have their own logic, their own sense of consistency. They also hold ultimate, disproportionate power.

Had Canada left Binnington in St. Louis, or in his favorite vacation spot, no one would have complained. The nation’s shelves are not bulging with goaltenders these days. Logan Thompson of Washington has a 24-2-5 record this season. MacKenzie Blackwood of the Avalanche was a possibility. Binnington was 15-19-4 with St. Louis with a save percentage of .894. Nothing under .900 is ideal. But he did have three shutouts. The league leader is Hellebuyck, with six.

So the Good Binnington could be spectacular, and Boston had already seen that one, to its regret. In 2019 Binnington showed up in St. Louis after seven minor league seasons. The Blues were bottom-feeding and maybe a couple of losses away from selling off parts. Binnington got on a roll and did not stop until the Blues won their first Stanley Cup. Game 7 of that series was right there in Boston, and Binnington stopped 31 of 32 shots.

Binnington’s technique comes and goes, but he always plays for keeps. In 2023 he objected to Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman choosing Binnington’s crease as the place to celebrate a goal. He threw a punch at Hartman, had to be separated from Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, and was suspended for two games. He challenged Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark to a fight this year after the Senators took a 7-1 lead on the Blues. “It’s all an act,” Ullmark said.

One night Binnington was pulled in San Jose. On his way off he challenged a couple of Sharks, appeared to swing his stick at Eric Karlsson, and yapped at goalie Devan Dubnyk. “I don’t know what he’s going, trying to throw punches,” Dubnyk said. “I told him to just get off the ice. He’s like 160 pounds.”

Binnington, who like McDavid grew up near Toronto in Richmond Hill, has lost his job a couple of times on merit. He also has the Blues’ alltime record for goaltending wins. “People want to put me under the gun,” he said in 2020 when his goalie honeymoon had been interrupted in St. Louis. “I love it. I’ll always come back and try to point the gun right back at you.”

Late on Thursday night, beyond the 60th minute, Binnington was targeted six times and caught all six bullets. “Binner’s a winner,” McDavid said, after making him so.

As for Matthews, he’ll try to throw this one into the garbage can and move on, unless Binnington is guarding that too.