Goalie Rage
Jordan Binnington swinging his stick near an opponent's head is certainly a move
When it comes to getting in each other's heads, hockey players are by far the most innovative in all of professional sports. St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington backed up this theory on Thursday night with a never-before-seen move that probably should never be seen again.
First, the backstory. At the end of the second period, with the Blues trailing 3-1 at home to the Colorado Avalanche, the Avs appeared to add to their lead with a sick cross-ice one-timer from Nazem Kadri to Cale Makar. As you'll see in the video, the goal did not count, because Binnington's net was clearly off its moorings. This led to a solid little donnybrook against the glass:
As you can see toward the end, Kadri is staring incredulously at Binnington, who is never afraid to mix it up. Binnington had just fired the puck toward Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper, then nearly decapitated Kadri with his stick. Wait, what?
OK, nearly decapitated is a little strong, but Binnington did swing his stick near Kadri's head, likely in the hopes of getting him to flinch. Ahhh, mind games that could go horribly wrong:
We're not the overly sensitive type here, but this does seem a TAD dangerous. He is a professional and knows how to wield that stick, but one little slip and that thing is either going in Kadri's mouth or helicoptering at a fan's head 10 rows up. But again, this is kind of Binnington's thing:
King Salty. By the way, Kadri was penalized for this, as was Binnington. Two matching 10-minute misconduct penalties, Binnington for the actual misconduct and Kadri for being in the vicinty of it, we guess.