BOSTON – St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stood tall to help Team Canada clinch the 4 Nations Face-Off championship over Team USA, overcoming widespread criticism from doubters throughout the NHL’s new midseason tournament.

Binnington saved 31 of 33 shots in Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory over the United States, taking home an international title along with the likes of NHL superstars Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and fellow Blues teammate Colton Parayko.

The new 4 Nations Face-Off tournament featured a round-robin competition with Canada, USA, Sweden, and Finland, four international powerhouses for NHL talent. Canada lost its first head-to-head matchup with USA last Saturday, but qualified for a rematch and triumphed when it mattered most in Thursday’s championship game.

Binnington finished the tournament with three wins in four games, a 2.37 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. All four of Canada’s game were decided by only one or two goals, putting pressure on Binnington to minimize mistakes and stay focused in the tight contests.

While Binnington made a few mistakes he would like to have back, including a floater from Jake Guentzel in the first matchup with USA and two quick goals in the closing moments against Finland, the criticism was quite swift.

On Canada’s hockey X platforms, followers didn’t hold back after those two middle games, leaving comments on their final score graphics such as:

  • “If Binnington starts [again], I don’t think we’ll survive”
  • “Send Binnington to Mars”
  • “Please no Binnington Thursday”
  • “Very short leash on Binnington”
  • “Binnington lost this game for Canada”
  • “Luckily this wasn’t Game 7”
  • “Start [Adin] Hill.”
  • “You cannot put Binnington back in net.”

And the criticism didn’t stop there. The Athletic published a report on Canada’s goaltending situation just before the tournament, describing a “goalie crisis” and “decades-long descent” for Canada in developing goaltenders. The report even labeled Binnington as an “underwhelming” option to patrol the net.

That narrative surrounding Binnington has been building for some time, fueled by the Blues’ struggles in recent seasons and notable peaks and valleys in personal results. Whether justified or not, he has also developed a reputation for on-ice antics at times, such as throwing a water bottle at Nazem Kadri in 2022 and escalating a tense confrontation with the Minnesota Wild that nearly led to a goalie-on-goalie fight in 2023.

All of these elements even led to an NHL on ESPN podcast last year questioning if Binnington was the NHL’s “most hated player” among non-Blues fans, also pointing to his inability to recapture magic of his 2019 Stanley Cup-winning season, leading the Blues on an improbable run out of last place midseason as a rookie.

To top that with pushback from the Canada hockey community, it’s fair to say Binnington takes more heat than the average goaltender. How does he handle it? He embraces it.

“People are going to talk, and you’ve got to just do your job,” said Binnington after Thursday’s win via The Athletic.

“As an athlete, as a competitor, there’s always going to be that doubt, and you’ve got to use that as motivation and find a way and believe in yourself to get the job done. Just being around these guys the last two weeks, I feel like it’s elevated everyone’s game. Just how proud we are to be Canadian hockey players and just finding a way to win with everything going on. Just stay with it, is all I’ll say.”

Binnington held Team USA scoreless after the second period, making six timely saves in overtime and staying composed while USA dominated in offensive pressure. A swift save on a juicy rebound that could have given U.S. the win especially proved pivotal. His contributions ultimately paved the way for Connor McDavid to score the tournament-clinching goal over U.S. star goaltender Connor Hellebyuck.

“There are goalies that are working their way to be the best they can be and I’m hoping I showed that perseverance and belief that Canadian goalies can get the job done, just believe in themselves to get opportunities and find a way to win,” Binnington added. “There’s a lot of talented goalies in every country, but specifically, I think, Canada.

Binnington had the confidence of Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper well before the tournament began, and he gained trust from some of NHL’s biggest names.

“I don’t think I have enough words, to be honest with you,” said Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. “He was incredible. So much poise.”

“The moment doesn’t get to him,” said Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. “He made probably three or four all-world saves early in overtime to allow us to score the goal. So, all credit to him. Hopefully some of those haters will back off him, because honestly, he played great.”

Thursday’s victory also marked a bit of a full-circle moment for Binnington, who helped the Blues capture theur first Stanley Cup title at the TD Garden in Boston in 2019. Nearly six full years later, he led Canada to the first 4 Nations championship in the same building.

Binnington’s latest achievement also comes in a busy season where he broke the Blues’ record for all-time victories among a goaltender (now at 160), won his second outdoor Winter Classic contest and remains the go-to Blues starting goaltender despite a midseason coaching change.