Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington during Olympic practice on Sunday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Jordan Binnington loves pressure – the more, the better. Which is probably a good thing, since he is about to step into the hockey world’s brightest, least-forgiving spotlight once again.
Binnington was there last year when he was named the starter for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off – at a time when all anyone could talk about was that there seemed to be no top-tier Canadian goalies anymore. Somehow the best had all become American, Russian, Swedish or Finnish.
All Binnington did after that was backstop Canada to the tournament win, including a string of career-defining saves that kept the game from ending. Without Binnington last February, there would be no Connor McDavid heroics in overtime against the U.S.
Binnington, by all accounts, is a big-game goalie. He rose from the minor leagues to an unlikely Stanley Cup run in St. Louis in 2019, winning on the road in Game 7.
The regular season this year has been much different, where Binnington has been a middling NHL goalie on an underperforming team.
However, none of the games St. Louis is playing would count as big ones. Those will be taking place in Milan, which is why Team Canada brought him.
“He’s shown he’s a big-game player,” Canadian captain Sidney Crosby said after Team Canada practised Wednesday.
Referencing Binnington’s highlight-reel saves at the 4 Nations tournament a year ago, including a stop on Auston Matthews in the final, Crosby called them “game-changers.”
“It ended up being the difference. You don’t want to put your goalie in those positions, but he made some huge saves,” Crosby said.
Once more, Canada, the country, comes into a best-on-best tournament fretting about whether Canada, the hockey team, has goalies good enough to win.
Binnington makes a save against Jake Guentzel of Team USA during the third period of the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game in February, 2025, in Boston.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Binnington will likely start Thursday’s opening game against Czechia. Head coach Jon Cooper has signalled he is loyal to the guy who helped him win once before.
For Canada’s second game against Switzerland the next day, Cooper said he will likely hand the reins to Logan Thompson or Darcy Kuemper. Most likely it will be Thompson, based on how the goalies have been used in practice in Milan.
Cooper is well aware of the constant goalie debate that rages in Canada. Gone are the days when a single province like Quebec could churn out a string of hall of famers in Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo.
Prior to the 4 Nations tournament, Binnington faced questions about whether he was up to the task. Mid-tournament, whenever he bobbled a puck, the noise got louder. Until he won.
Cooper has never forgotten what Binnington did. And for the coach, that’s enough.
“He proved everything I felt about him. On the biggest stage, at the biggest moment, at the biggest time, he delivered. And we’ve seen that before,” Cooper said Wednesday.
“He’s got the ‘it factor’, and he delivered when we needed him most.”
As NHLers hit the ice in Milan, Canada gets down to business
Still, Cooper is a realist.
“Is that guaranteed? You never know that. But everything we watched in that playoff run [in St. Louis] and what he’s done since, it’s been pretty remarkable.”
In short tournaments like the Olympics or the World Junior Championships, teams can be prone to panic-pulling a goalie, even if it’s not the reason for a loss. If a team struggles to generate offence, perhaps switching out the goalie will shake things up.
Cooper doesn’t like that approach. In an interview at his Tampa Bay Lightning office prior to the Olympics, he explained how he approaches goalies, particularly in short, high-stakes tournaments. He backs them.
“Jordan Binnington got the performance out of Binnington. I just showed undying faith in him when all the white noise was going around, and everybody was like ‘When is Cooper making the goalie change?’”
Even Binnington would admit he let in a soft goal or two in the early games of 4 Nations, Cooper said.
“But all he did was win the games. And the one game we did lose, we only scored one goal. And so my message to Binner was: You’re my guy. I don’t care what’s being said around here. I just gave him the platform to do it.”
At practice Wednesday morning, Binnington was a man of few words. He was asked about how he handles the pressure of such games.
“I just stick with my process and leave it all out on the ice,” Binnington said.
It was a rote answer, but with some of the biggest games of his career approaching, Binnington didn’t feel like going deep.
“I just stay in my own world and put the trust in the process.”
Cooper’s process is to put his trust in Binnington. And with the coach reluctant to panic or change course, it will be his net to lose.