Blues’ Binnington refuses to be pulled during 7-3 loss while Hofer hides in tunnel

Well, the St. Louis Blues can’t say their goaltending duo of Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer aren’t on the same page, as during a 7-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, the two Canadian netminders had one of the funnier moments of the season.

While the Blues as a whole did not have the best performance in the loss, as they allowed 35 shots and 4.45 expected goals, Binnington, who started the game, also had his struggles in the game with an .800 save percentage and -2.06 goals saved above expected.

After Chicago scored their seventh goal, Blues head coach Jim Montgomery looked to pull Binnington and put in Hofer. But Binnington waved off the call, refusing to come off the ice, which is the kind of behavior expected from the Canadian with a history for these types of shenanigans.

But it also appeared Hofer didn’t want to go into the game either, as he left the bench to hide down the tunnel to the team’s dressing room. That on its own made for a hilarious moment, but the broadcast unintentionally added to the humor with the slow zoom to Hofer’s head peeking out from behind the wall in the tunnel.

Binnington ended up not allowing any more goals in the game, so it wound up being the right move, or as right of a move one can be in a 7-3 loss. The loss has piled on to what has been a tough season for the Blues, as they currently sit in seventh in the Central Division with a 17-19-8 record, although thanks to the underwhelming performance of the Western Conference outside of a few top teams, they sit only four points out of a playoff spot.

The Blues’ goaltending has been a large factor for the team’s poor performance, as their .878 team SV% is the fifth-worst in the league. While Hofer has improved recently to a 9-8-2 record, .900 SV%, three shutouts and 0.6 5v5 GSAx, Binnington continues to struggle with an 8-11-6 record, .871 SV% (sixth-worst in the league), one shutout and -8.41 5v5 GSAx (second-worst). Despite Binnington’s performance, he was named to Canada’s Olympic team last week, a move that many have questioned but was largely expected after his performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.