St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington suffered a knee injury in his team’s Game 3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche and will miss at least Game 4 of the series, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Binnington left just 6:45 into the first period after Avalanche center Nazem Kadri and Blues defenseman Calle Rosen both crashed the net seeking a loose puck. The Blues said that their starting goaltender had a lower-body injury.
Backup Ville Husso, who started the postseason as the Blues’ No. 1 netminder, entered the game and gave up four goals on 23 shots in the 5-2 defeat.
Blues coach Craig Berube questioned Kadri’s role in the collision despite no penalties being called on the play.
“Look at Kadri’s reputation. That’s all I’ve got to say,” he said of Kadri, who has multiple postseason suspensions, including an eight-game ban for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk in the 2021 playoffs.
Kadri defended his actions on the play.
“I just see a loose puck, really. It was just kind of sitting behind him. Their defenseman collided with me and pushed me into him. Had that not been the case, I don’t think I would have hit him at all,” he said.
After the game, Kadri was doing a postgame interview with TNT and talking about the collision. He paused for a moment and then continued, eventually telling the broadcast that Binnington may have thrown a water bottle at him. In his postgame news conference, Kadri didn’t back off that insinuation.
According to The Athletic, two people confirmed it was Binnington who threw the water bottle.
The loss of Binnington was significant for the Blues. He had gone 4-1 in five games since replacing Husso for Game 4 of the Blues’ first-round series win against the Minnesota Wild. Binnington entered the Saturday night game with the best save percentage (.948) of any goalie still competing in the postseason and had stopped 81 of 85 shots in the first two games of the series.
Game 4 is scheduled for Monday in St. Louis.
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski contributed to this report.