Canada has come out firing in Milan, opening the Olympic men’s hockey tournament with back-to-back wins and doing it in convincing fashion. But while the offense has been clicking and the defense holding strong, the real story so far has been the play between the pipes.
Coming into the tournament, goaltending was the biggest question mark on this Canadian roster. Jordan Binnington, Logan Thompson, and Darcy Kuemper were all brought in, but none arrived with a bulletproof résumé this season.
Binnington, in particular, had plenty of skeptics after an up-and-down year with the St. Louis Blues.
Still, he was tapped to start Canada’s opener - and he delivered in a big way.
A shutout against Czechia in the first game? That’s how you quiet the noise.
Binnington looked poised, confident, and in control - three things that haven’t always been used to describe his NHL play this year. But Olympic ice seems to bring out something different in the 30-year-old netminder. He wasn’t just stopping pucks; he was dictating the pace, handling the puck like a third defenseman, and giving his blue line the kind of support that makes a coach sleep easy.
Former NHL goaltender Curtis Joseph, who knows a thing or two about pressure-packed international hockey, was impressed. The longtime Maple Leafs star joined Leafs Morning Take to break down Binnington’s performance and didn’t hold back on the praise.
“It was flawless,” Joseph said. “They played great defensively, Binnington had a great game.
There were some detractors coming into the game. He handled the puck extremely well, helped the D out.”
Joseph pointed out that while Binnington’s NHL numbers this season haven’t been anything to write home about, context matters. The Blues haven’t exactly been a defensive juggernaut, and that’s made life difficult for their goaltenders. But with a more structured and disciplined Canadian blue line in front of him, Binnington looked like a different goalie.
“His mindset must have been, ‘I’ve got a great defense in front of me, I’m just gonna make sure I stop that first shot, be square,’ and he was square to every puck,” Joseph explained. “I think I knew he was gonna be okay when he got the puck behind the net, he kind of looked one way, the other way, then he went backhand sauce up the wing.
I was like, oh, that’s a confident play. Okay, this kid’s feeling it.”
That kind of composure - the ability to read the ice, make the smart play, and exude confidence - is what separates good goalies from great ones on the international stage. Binnington has always had that edge to his game.
Love it or hate it, he plays with swagger. And when he channels it the right way, it can be a game-changer.
“He’s got that swagger, which more goalies need in the league,” Joseph added. “If I were to give my younger self some advice, it’d be to have more confidence early.
And that’s easy to say and hard to do when you’re a young guy coming into a team full of veterans. But I would tell myself, be more confident early, what do you got to lose?”
It’s a telling quote - not just for young goalies trying to find their footing, but for fans trying to understand what makes Binnington tick. He’s not your typical calm-and-quiet netminder.
He plays with emotion. Sometimes it burns him.
But when he channels it the right way, he steps up in the biggest moments. We’ve seen it before - in the Stanley Cup run, at the 4 Nations - and now, early in this Olympic tournament, we’re seeing it again.
Canada’s goaltending situation might have been a question mark heading into Milan, but if Binnington keeps playing like this, it could become one of the team’s biggest strengths.