Jordan Binnington wanted all of that smoke.
The St. Louis Blues goaltender went after three players on the San Jose Sharks after he was pulled in a game between the two teams at the SAP Center on Saturday evening.
It’s unclear what exactly provoked Binnington to lose his mind. It’s possible that Binnington was just upset after being pulled in the second period by coach Craig Berube, but the St. Louis Fox Sports Midwest broadcast seemed to indicate that Binnington may have been chirped by someone on the San Jose bench.
Whatever the reason may have been, Binnington went on an adventure before leaving the ice to give way to backup goaltender Ville Husso. Binnington first skated to the San Jose bench and punched Sharks’ defenseman Radim Simek before skating to center ice and faking out Erik Karlsson with a pretend blocker punch. Before exiting through the door at the opposing end of the ice, Binnington attacked San Jose goaltender Devan Dubnyk and tried to provoke a goalie fight.
You can watch this bizarre sequence that unfolded with Binnington below:
The San Jose Sharks NBC Sports California broadcast had a good replay of the blocker punch on Karlsson and the interaction with Dubnyk.
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 28, 2021
The broadcast pointed out that it was likely wise for Binnington to not follow through with fighting Dubnyk. The San Jose Sharks’ goalie is one of the biggest goalies in the NHL at 6’6″ and 224 lbs.
Karlsson’s reaction to a goalie randomly attacking him and pretending to clock him in the face was priceless.
Binnington was pulled approximately 30 minutes into the game after giving up four goals on 19 shots, which left him with a .789 save percentage for the evening. The Blues’ netminder was assessed a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for his actions.
The Blues still managed to win the game, prevailing by a 7-6 score in a wild back-and-forth thriller. Since the Blues won the game, the team’s Twitter account decided to have some fun with Binnington’s outburst.
Who else is fired up?!!! #stlblues pic.twitter.com/CkqsNdXfJU
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) February 28, 2021
Binnington is known for not getting “nervous”, but he’s developing a bit of a reputation for losing his cool. Just last season, Binnington punched Nashville Predators forward Austin Watson in the head with his blocker and also clocked Dallas Stars’ captain Jamie Benn with his glove in the dying seconds of the second period of Game 4 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Binnington clearly has a temper, and his outburst Saturday night was just the latest example of how easy it is for the Ontario native to lose his cool.
Will the Sharks take any kind of action on Binnington in a future West Division game? They may do so if feisty forward Evander Kane has anything to say about it.
“I guess he’ll have something to report in his next interview. Seems like he does a lot of talking. Too bad I wasn’t on the ice for that.”, Kane said in his post-game Zoom interview with reporters.
Dubnyk also voiced his opinion on Binnington’s actions in his post-game Zoom interview.
“I guess he’s frustrated,” Dubnyk told reporters. “But I don’t know why he’s skating around pretending to punch guys like he’s … I just told him to get off the ice, calm down. He’s 160 pounds. He’s out there swinging at guys like … we all get frustrated but … if you want to get into it with somebody, fine but I don’t know why he was out there fake punching everybody.”
