{"id":454921,"date":"2026-02-11T22:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454921\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:50:21","slug":"the-jordan-binnington-issue-at-heart-of-team-canadas-goalie-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/454921\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jordan Binnington issue at heart of Team Canada&#8217;s goalie decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MILAN \u2014 If the Team Canada brass thought Jordan Binnington\u2019s performance at 4 Nations would quiet the noise around their goaltending situation, they couldn\u2019t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Goaltending is still the biggest question mark around the national team that once went from Patrick Roy to Martin Brodeur to Roberto Luongo in nets, and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/11\/sports\/canada-mens-olympic-hockey-team-saddened-by-school-shooting\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Team Canada<\/a> is steadfastly refusing to name a starter between its trio of Binnington, Logan Thompson and Darcy Kuemper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not announcing that here with you guys,\u201d coach Jon Cooper said following practice Wednesday, when the three goalies seemed to rotate throughout.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38458705\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-jordan-binnington-canada-training-120737023.jpg\" alt=\"Jordan Binnington of Canada during ice hockey training.\" class=\"wp-image-38458705\"  \/>Jordan Binnington is one of the candidates to start between the pipes for Team Canada. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLove you all, but that\u2019s not happening. [The players will] know tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One tidbit Cooper did offer: \u201cThere\u2019s a really good chance\u201d that Canada will start two different goalies in its first two games. The Canadians open on Thursday against Czechia before facing Switzerland the next day.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, the conversation comes down to how much Cooper and co are weighing Binnington\u2019s history of clutch performances \u2014 in the 4 Nations final and Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, for a start \u2014 against his terrible .864 save percentage with the Blues this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe proved everything I felt about him,\u201d Cooper said of Binnington\u2019s 4 Nations. \u201cOn the biggest stage, at the biggest moment, at the biggest time, he delivered. And I\u2019ve seen that before. There\u2019s just some guys that got that it factor and he delivered when we needed him most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, who didn\u2019t make the 4 Nations squad after being traded from assistant coach Bruce Cassidy\u2019s Golden Knights to the Capitals, is having the best season right now of the three, with a .912 save percentage in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Kuemper, a Stanley Cup champion with the 2022 Avalanche, is sitting at .900 with the Los Angeles Kings.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.44632768;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38458724\" width=\"853\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-jon-cooper-head-coach-120734132.jpg\" alt=\"Jon Cooper, head coach of Canada, wearing a black jacket over a grey hoodie, looks forward.\" class=\"wp-image-38458724\"  \/>Team Canada coach Jon Cooper. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>The way Canada is talking, though, it would be no surprise if Binnington leads them out for warmups on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just go back to January last year,\u201d said Canada GM Doug Armstrong, who holds the same title in St. Louis. \u201cHearing the same things and saw how that turned out. So, it made me quite comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 If the Team Canada brass thought Jordan Binnington\u2019s performance at 4 Nations would quiet the noise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,5,4211,4,2602,43,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-454921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-italy","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116054448082662548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}