As Blues deal with Jordan Binnington injury, club says it can’t focus on Nazem Kadri

For months, the Blues chose to play Ville Husso between the pipes. Then in the first round of the playoffs, they chose to put in Jordan Binnington. Now they don’t have a choice.

As The Athletic reported after the Blues’ 5-2 loss to Colorado in Game 3 on Saturday, Binnington will miss multiple weeks with a sprained right knee.

On Sunday, Blues coach Craig Berube confirmed that Binnington is “out for the series,” but doesn’t need surgery and could be available for the Western Conference finals should the club slip past the Avalanche in the best-of-seven they now trail 2-1.

“It is what it is,” Berube said. “We’ll move on.”

The Blues will move on with Husso back as their starting netminder for Game 4 on Monday at Enterprise Center, and he’ll be backed up by Charlie Lindgren, who was called up from the American Hockey League’s Springfield Thunderbirds on an emergency basis.

“A lot of faith (in Husso),” Berube said. “He’s played great for us all year, he’s ready to go. He’s done a great job this year developing himself with (goalie coach) Davey Alexander and he’s become a better goalie. We started with him in the playoffs.”

Husso was thrust into the Colorado series after Binnington was involved in a collision with teammate Calle Rosen and the Avs’ Nazem Kadri in the first period of Saturday’s game, a play that would still be scrutinized on Sunday.

The Blues’ Brayden Schenn was asked if it was dirty and replied, “Um, you know, I just think from (Kadri’s) comments, he said that he got pushed and he’s behind our guy (Rosen), so I don’t know how that makes sense.”

Schenn, a forward who’s crashed the crease thousands of times in his career, said that when you’re in that position, “You know what you’re doing.”

Robert Bortuzzo, a defenseman who’s been in Rosen’s position in that situation just as often, said, “You ask any player, a guy like that knows what he’s doing there.”

Former NHL referee Tim Peel spent 22 years in the league and, watching it unfold on TV on Saturday, agreed that Kadri’s actions weren’t incidental. There wasn’t a penalty called on the play, which Peel understood, but he said that doesn’t take away from Kadri’s intentions.

“What I saw was a player taking advantage of a situation in which two players were going hard to the net,” Peel said. “When it happened, to me at the time, I thought a minor for goalie interference should have been called on the play. But I have no problem with a penalty not being called because in real time it’s hard to tell who made the initial contact, and at most it’s a minor penalty.

“I like Naz Kadri, I like the player a lot, and he’s a very talented player. But what I saw there is a player who knew he could take advantage of a situation and took full advantage of it.”

The NHL’s department of player safety decided against any discipline, and Peel understood that, too, though with a caveat.

“Do I think he should be suspended? No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s a suspendable offense,” Peel said. “But it seems every playoffs, he is in the spotlight somehow, from (suspension-issued hits on) Tommy Wingels (in 2018) to Jake DeBrusk (2019) to Justin Faulk (2021), and now Jordan Binnington. Is that a coincidence? Probably not.”

In the Blues-Avalanche first-round playoff series a year ago, Kadri was suspended eight games for his hit on Faulk. The Blues did not retaliate that night, waiting until this year’s regular season when Schenn and Faulk fought Kadri.

Should the Blues have retaliated on Saturday?

“No. Nope, we’re here to win,” Berube said.

That doesn’t mean the players didn’t want to respond.

“Of course, I’m sure a lot of guys did, but our focus is on winning the series,” Bortuzzo said. “I think that would be kind of misplacing a lot of our energy. We like where our group is at, competing at a really high level, so I think that’s where we’re going to focus our attention.”

They seem to be following Berube’s lead on this one.

“Yeah, it all starts at the top with the leader, and he’s our voice in the room,” Schenn said. “We respect everything he says. He’s good at channeling energy the right way. You can worry about the play and let it frustrate you, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning a hockey game.

“In the playoffs, you’re always going to deal with adversity in different ways. You just have to channel your energy the right way, not worry about Nazem Kadri. We’ll worry about that in our locker room and then focus on getting a win and tying the series up (Monday) night.”

But the Blues will be thinking about Binnington, who perhaps was putting them in a position to potentially upset the Avs in this series.

“He’s not happy,” Berube said. “He was playing great hockey, and he wants to be in there and help us win. So any time a player gets hurt from a situation, he’s not going to be happy about it. They’re competitive guys, they want to play, and now he can’t.”

Since the Blues turned to Binnington in Game 4 of their first-round series, he was 4-1 with a .949 save percentage.

“He came in and got his mojo back,” Schenn said. “I feel for him. It’s an unfortunate injury.”

As reported on Saturday, Binnington was so upset that he tossed a water bottle toward Kadri while the Avs forward was involved in a postgame TV interview. The NHL said that it would be investigating the incident on Sunday, and afterward, deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to The Athletic, “I don’t anticipate any further actions being taken.”

Now the Blues will turn back to Husso, whose record this postseason is 1-3 — including the loss in Game 3 after relieving Binnington — with a 3.38 goals-against average and .891 save percentage.

But Husso did have a 37-save shutout against Minnesota in the first round, and in the regular season, he was 25-7-6 with a 2.56 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

“He’s just a kid who seems pretty unflappable,” Bortuzzo said. “He’s got great energy in the room, just a true character who plays with a lot of passion, and I’m sure he’s champing at the bit to get in there.

“He was put in a tough spot last game, coming into a playoff game, but you can see how the fans reacted. I’m sure he’s going to embrace that, and as a team, we know what we’ve got back there. So we’re very comfortable.”

Berube did acknowledge that the Blues will have to adjust to the difference in puck play between Binnington, whose work was vital in the Wild series, and Husso.

“I keep talking about that, it’s a big thing in (Binnington’s game),” Berube said. “There’s some things we’re going to have to do a little bit differently for sure.”

Meanwhile, Lindgren is back in the NHL and will serve as Husso’s backup.

The 28-year-old became somewhat of a cult figure in his short time up with the Blues earlier this season, going 5-0 with a 1.22 GAA and a .958 save percentage before being reassigned to Springfield.

Lindgren finished the AHL regular season with a record of 24-7-1 with a 2.21 GAA and .925 save percentage, and he opened the playoffs with a 50-save performance in a 4-1 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pa.) Penguins on May 11.

“He’s done a great job down there,” Berube said. “He just had a game he won (with) 50 saves down there in the minors. He’s played well, and he’s a great guy, great teammate. Our team loves having him around.”

Lindgren would have been in the Thunderbirds’ net for the start of the Atlantic Division finals on Sunday, but with his emergency call-up, prospect Joel Hofer got the nod and made 35 saves in a 6-0 win over the Charlotte Checkers in Game 1.

Instead, Lindgren will be on the Blues’ bench on Monday against the Avalanche.

“Good attitude, full of confidence, believes in himself,” Schenn said. “Like I said, it’s Husso’s net right now and we have full confidence in Husso. But the goalies have been great throughout the whole organization this year and have helped us. The goaltending, it’s obviously a topic right now, but we’re going to move on and worry about playing hard in front of Huss.”

(Top photo: Jeff Curry / USA Today)