How in the Blue Hell is Jordan Binnington the best Canada goaltender?

[ElLeetch]

Its been a long time since the era of Roy/Brodeur/Belfour

 

[NyQuil]

Its been a long time since the era of Roy/Brodeur/Belfour

We had Price and Luongo.

 

[bobbyking]

also why is crosby not centering his own line, he shouldnt be playing with mack. yes let's put cirelli as center unreal

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

how about his ability to stop pucks?

Technically, that goes along with his ability to move the puck, he's just allowing it to move into his net.

 

[Connor McConnor]

The rest of the team hasn't looked much better TBH. grats, you put a 5 spot on Finland, doesn't change the fact that you played some atrocious defense in the final 6 minutes but in typical Canadian fashion you blame the goalie instead of looking at the entire play leading to the goal.

Dont worry, playoff Hele is coming out on Thurs

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

It's funny how some Canadians blame every goal on the goaltender just because they don't like him.

...wouldn't matter which team he played for in the NHL, the reaction would be the same...he's starting because of what he did 6 years ago in ONE Playoff...Legacy pick and it's BS...unless you can add to WHY he should start after giving up at least one muffin in 3 straight games...??...

 

[StreetHawk]

Its been a long time since the era of Roy/Brodeur/Belfour

Also with the big gap since the World Cup in 2016 when Price was 29, it’s gone under the radar for most fans. Some kids Canada hope for have not panned out.

 

[NVious]

He's the stereotypical modern goalie, looks like he has great fundamentals, tall, fast, bla bla bla. Just not good though.

Without his fantastic first year run, he is basically a 900 goalie (904 to be exact). I don't know if Hill would be better and I def wouldn't go to Monty either.

Teams should've been named a week before, naming players so far out is so stupid. Isn't the point to showcase the best players?

He hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been good either, a C performance overall which is not even close to enough for being the supposed "Best In Canada"

 

[CDN24]

It's funny how some Canadians blame every goal on the goaltender just because they don't like him.

He is not very good. Among Cdn born NHL goalies this year with more than a couple starts he is outside top 10 in GAA, he is outside the top 15 in Sav%. Despite being 3rd in GP, he is only 8th in wins. That said he has the occasional great game, maybe he is due for one

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

He hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been good either, a C performance overall which is not even close to enough for being the supposed "Best In Canada"

...allowing at least one muffin a game is being terrible...he has been the biggest Achilles Heel of this squad so far, and that's saying a lot...

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Hockey 'f***ing' Canada. That's how. They chose 2 assistant coaches over having a Vezina candidate in net.
So much for 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' eh?

 

[NVious]

...allowing at least one muffin a game is being terrible...he has been the biggest Achilles Heel of this squad so far, and that's saying a lot...

To an extent I agree, but simultaneously the rest of the options aren't clearly better. That's the problem.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

To an extent I agree, but simultaneously the rest of the options aren't clearly better. That's the problem.

...we don't know that...no other goaltender has been given any time...which is another ridiculous fault of Cooper and his staff...

 

[NVious]

...we don't know that...no other goaltender has been given any time...which is another ridiculous fault of Cooper and his staff...

These are nearly winner take all games, the other goalies had this year and last to prove how good they were. Hill sits at 900 save percentage on arguably the best team in the league, Monty is below 900. Not exactly confidence inducing options.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

These are nearly winner take all games, the other goalies had this year and last to prove how good they were. Hill sits at 900 save percentage on arguably the best team in the league, Monty is below 900. Not exactly confidence inducing options.

...and yet both have "better" stats than Binnington...and are younger...and Thompson isn't here because Vegas coaches don't care for him anymore...it's ridiculous...

 

[CanadasTeam99]

You could switch this with Edmonton Oilers and Stuart Skinner

But Binnington has made huge saves over what I have seen

 

[DearDiary]

also why is crosby not centering his own line, he shouldnt be playing with mack. yes let's put cirelli as center unreal

Crosby has a wrist injury that's taped up in plastic.

 

[bossram]

He's the stereotypical modern goalie, looks like he has great fundamentals, tall, fast, bla bla bla. Just not good though.

Without his fantastic first year run, he is basically a 900 goalie (904 to be exact). I don't know if Hill would be better and I def wouldn't go to Monty either.

Teams should've been named a week before, naming players so far out is so stupid. Isn't the point to showcase the best players?

He hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been good either, a C performance overall which is not even close to enough for being the supposed "Best In Canada"

He is not very good. Among Cdn born NHL goalies this year with more than a couple starts he is outside top 10 in GAA, he is outside the top 15 in Sav%. Despite being 3rd in GP, he is only 8th in wins. That said he has the occasional great game, maybe he is due for one

Raw Sv% is really not a great way to evaluate goaltending, especially in today's NHL (where shot quality is way up and shot totals are down). GAA is completely useless as a goaltending metric. Same with wins.

Binnington's adjusted metrics (like GSAx or delta save%) are actually decent. No, I don't think he's Canada's best goaltender available. But he's not bad, and really hasn't been particularly good or bad in the 4 Nations.

 

[HabzSauce]

Darcy Kuemper has a Stanley Cup more recently than Binnington and has been in far better form this season. So where’s the logic there?

I think if these international tournaments are going to be frequently occurring, hockey folks need to start thinking more like football/soccer folks. When you pick a national team, form and recent performance, especially with goalies, should lean more into the guys who are playing well and showing confidence within the last few months…unless we are talking about some legendary, different “tier” type of player. Just my $0.02.

Having Kuemper on team Canada is debatable but he was not a factor at all during that cup run. And he was horrific in WSH the next two years after. Only now he's having a resurgence again. Totally understand POV of leaving him off but again could argue him or Binner and I wouldn't have an issue with it.

I don't disagree with your second comment. It's interesting.....The tricky thing with these sorts of tournaments is there's almost zero time to test things out. Since there's so few games, teams prefer to go with the proven players. Binner & Hill are proven whereas guys like Thompson are not (Even if they're having a good regular NHL season - Stakes are higher in these tournaments and success doesn't always translate)

Id probably do the same if I were GM. Flip a coin between Binner and Hill for game 1, and if they stink maybe you take a chance on the inexperienced guy that's having a great season. Still super risky tho

 

[LeafalCrusader]

We had Price and Luongo.

I'd settle for a Crawford and Ward at this point.

 

[HabzSauce]

Kuemper.

Kuemper and Hill's cup's happened much more recently than Binnington's, and both are having better seasons. A pretty easy argument can be made for Blackwood to be over all 3 they picked.

Montembeault was the proverbial MTL inclusion, just to have somebody from one of the host cities represented (in a roster spot that was likely never going to be used barring 2 injuries).



Until we have the next Roy/Brodeur/Price/Luongo, I think much more focus should be on who's playing well, regardless of international/stanley cup/"big game" experience. It's not like whoever you pick is going to have bums playing in front of them, so you may as well go with who's actually playing the best.

If anything you keep Hill (personal preference) and swap out Binner with Kuemper. But I get why they didn't bring Kuemper in. He was less of a factor in COL winning cup vs STL and VGK with Binner and Hill. And he was absolutely atrocious for two years after that in WSH. Only now in LA he's looking good again. So I get why Canada went with the guys they did.

The 3rd string is irrelevant here. Regardless of who they chose, they wouldn't be seeing any games anyways unless injuries .

Another poster I replied to said same thing about picking best players. And while still tricky when there's so few games to see how your guys perform, you make a good point of how CAN goalies suck at the moment so might as well pick the best from that season.

 

[Blanka]

The rest of the team hasn't looked much better TBH. grats, you put a 5 spot on Finland, doesn't change the fact that you played some atrocious defense in the final 6 minutes but in typical Canadian fashion you blame the goalie instead of looking at the entire play leading to the goal.

This is definitely a take. Not a very good one. But it's still a take.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

I would have chosen Ingram over Binnington.

 

[NVious]

...we don't know that...no other goaltender has been given any time...which is another ridiculous fault of Cooper and his staff...

It's been 3 must win games for Canada basically. The other guys only have themselves to blame for not playing their way to the starter position, it was wide open this year and none of them did anything spectacular.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

It's been 3 must win games for Canada basically. The other guys only have themselves to blame for not playing their way to the starter position, it was wide open this year and none of them did anything spectacular.

...that's a falsehood...Binnington was given the net and no other tender was even given a chance to play while Binner has played poorly...