St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington suspended for sparking melee that nearly led to goalie fight
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The rarest fight in hockey? Two goalies. Here’s how it happened in an Admirals game.
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St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was suspended for two games on Thursday for his latest on-ice outburst, which sparked a melee and a near goalie fight.
Binnington had gone after Ryan Hartman after the Minnesota forward scored and made what the league called “light, incidental contact” with the goalie while skating by during Wednesday’s 8-5 Wild victory. Binnington entered the goal celebration and struck Hartman’s face with his blocker. During the ensuing melee, Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury skated down to confront Binnington, but the on-ice officials kept them apart.
Binnington was ejected after being assessed a match penalty. He and Fleury also got two minutes for leaving the crease.
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The suspension — for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct — will cost Binnington $64,864.86 in lost pay.
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“Recklessly entering an opponent’s goal celebration long after the play has ended for the purposes of seeking retribution will not be tolerated,” the NHL said in a video.
What are Binnington’s past outbursts?
The NHL noted that Binnington had no previous suspensions or fines during his career.
But he has had outbursts in the past.
Earlier this season, the Blues goalie knocked Pittsburgh’s Jason Zucker off his feet as he circled the net. Zucker later scored on Binnington, prompting Blues coach Craig Berube to pull his goalie, who received a misconduct for mouthing off to the Penguins bench as he left the crease.
“It doesn’t help anything,” Berube said of his goalie’s antics at the time. “Just play goal. Stop the puck.”
In last season’s playoffs, Binnington threw an empty water bottle in the direction of Nazem Kadri during a postgame interview on TNT with the then-Avalanche player, who had injured the goalie in an inadvertent collision.
During a 2021 Sharks-Blues game, Binnington shoved goalie Devan Dubnyk as he left the ice after being pulled.
Binnington won the Stanley Cup and made the all-rookie team with the Blues in 2019, but this season and last his goals-against average has been above 3.00.
What did Marc-Andre Fleury say during the near goalie fight?
Fleury was mic’d up during Wednesday’s game and the Wild tweeted audio and video of the incident.
Among Fleury’s quotes while talking to the official restraining him:
“He (Binnington) always wants to fight somebody.”
“It’ll be fun, no. Get the crowd going a bit, yeah.”
“I’ll just get my stuff. I don’t like having my hair like this, you know?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington suspended for sparking melee that nearly led to goalie fight