MONTREAL — In another lifetime, Drew Doughty won Olympic gold helping protect the crease of Jordan Binnington’s hero. Yet the veteran defenceman hadn’t met Canada’s current No. 1 goaltender until they had dinner Monday night after practice.
“He’s actually pretty calm off the ice,” Doughty says. “Very chill.”
If Doughty sounds surprised by this discovery, that’s because Binnington has a switch.
“Because I just remember him, like, kind of going psycho a little bit — but that just showed you how competitive he was,” Doughty goes on.
“He’s a winner, plain and simple. He’s a winner, and he’s a competitor — seeing how hard he competes. We have full trust in all of them. But Binner is a winner, and that’s all it takes for me.”
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4 Nations Face-Off on Sportsnet
The inaugural edition of the 4 Nations Face-Off is here with the top players from Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States going head-to-head in the highly anticipated best-on-best event. Watch all the games on Sportsnet, starting with Canada vs. Sweden on Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
Head coach Jon Cooper succinctly describes Canada’s identity as “gamers and winners,” and the scrappy Binnington, who clawed his way here from Kalamazoo (literally), fits the bill.
“It’s special. It’s real. It’s time,” Binnington said Tuesday, mere hours after Cooper told him he’d be the country’s starter for Wednesday’s tournament opener versus Sweden.
“This is why you work so hard, to get to moments like this. Enjoy the opportunity. Yeah, it’s big.”
Even bigger? The scrutiny that will soon surround Binnington like blue paint.
Canada’s forward group is an embarrassment of riches led by the most awe-inspiring skater on Earth. Up front, the hot debates amount to: Should Crosby centre Mackinnon or should MacKinnon centre Crosby?
The starting blue line has too many Stanley Cup rings to fit on one hand, and — with American Quinn Hughes sidelined by injury — is led by the most dynamic defenceman in the tournament.
If Canada is to fail here in Montreal and Boston, the popular thinking goes, it will be because its goaltending wasn’t up to snuff.
Binnington and No. 2 Adin Hill were selected because they’ve each lifted the Cup in recent years. Third-stringer Sam Montembeault was added because of his longstanding relationship with Hockey Canada and success at the world championships.
As high as their highs have been, none of Canada’s three choices has mustered so much as a league-average save percentage in 2024-25.
You’ve heard this one before: The United States’ third option might be better than Canada’s first.
This season, Binnington has a losing record (15-19-4), a sub-.900 save percentage (.897), and was last seen giving up five goals to the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks Saturday. (Still, he battled in the shootout and won that night.)
Thrive, and GM Don Sweeney’s push toward elimination-game experience will look prescient.
Flounder, and we may need a summit. (Or some live-cam footage of Logan Thompson watching from his couch.)
“We knew that we were making a goalie decision, as we did with the rest of our team, maybe arguably earlier than you’d like to — to allow players to see who might have a hot hand,” said Sweeney, whose Bruins were undone by Binnington in Game 7 of 2019.
“But the fact is, two of these guys won Stanley Cups, and I had a front-row seat for watching Jordan Binnington rise to that occasion. So, we have no qualms about which goaltender is going into net.”
Margins for error are thin here.
Lose two of three, and you’re not getting a fourth.
“It’s not like World Championship, where there’s a whole bunch of prelim games and you can put guys in and out,” Cooper said. “For everybody — that includes forwards, defencemen, everybody — this is it. You lose your first game, now what?”
If Canada’s coaching staff believes Binnington isn’t dialled in immediately, they’ll swiftly shift to Hill. If they reach Montembeault, it’s probably too late to matter.
Canada’s Brad Marchand was a star for that ’19 Bruins team that needed to sneak a few more goals past Binnington to etch their names on the Cup instead of his.
Marchand & Co. outshot the Blues 33-20 that mid-June night in Boston. But Binnington dug in and took care of business in enemy territory. He only allowed one puck past him.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that I take away from playing against him — he’s a gamer. And he showed up in the big moment,” Marchand says. “Those are the guys that you want to decide.”
In Binnington — who grew up admiring Carey Price and is now taking centre stage in Montreal — Cooper sees confidence and track record and “fire in the belly.”
So, when the coach met with his goalie Tuesday morning and handed him the net, the message was simple: “Just do your job.”
Funny, that’s precisely how Binnington views this week’s All-Star Game substitute.
Plenty of the stars have family flocking to the 4 Nations Face-Off for support, for fun.
Not Binnington.
“It’s a business trip,” he explains.
The international goaltending business in Canada has long boomed with Hall of Famers.
White surnames like PRICE, BRODEUR, ROY and LUONGO stitched on the back of red sweaters instilled confidence in the torch passing and the puck stopping.
So, how does Binnington feel about the widespread consternation and growing doubt about the state of Canada’s crease?
“There’s not much to be said, right?” Binnington replies.
“It’s about action. Let that do the talking.”
So, Canadian hockey fans, a question: Are you nervous?
Canada’s projected lineup Wednesday vs. Sweden
Sam Reinhart – Connor McDavid – Mitch Marner
Sidney Crosby – Nathan MacKinnon – Mark Stone
Brad Marchand – Brayden Point – Seth Jarvis
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Travis Konecny
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Shea Theodore – Drew Doughty
Josh Morrissey – Colton Parayko
Jordan Binnington starts
Adin Hill
Extras: Sam Bennett, Travis Sanheim
