St. Louis Blues Goaltender Jordan Binnington finally speak out on the incident after speaking to their head coach Jim Montgomery rudely when pulled out of the ice against Anaheim Ducks

In case you missed it, the St. Louis Blues fell 4–1 to the Anaheim Ducks in a one-sided matchup last night. Anaheim jumped out to a 2–0 lead on just five shots, prompting head coach Jim Montgomery to pull starting goaltender Jordan Binnington barely ten minutes into the game.

As Binnington skated off, he shot a sharp glare toward Montgomery, got visibly fired up, and exchanged heated words — all in full view of his teammates. Reports say Binnington “lost it” on his coach before storming down the tunnel to the locker room. He remained there for the rest of the first period before returning to the bench for the second.

During the intermission, Binnington and Montgomery reportedly talked things out. Binnington was not made available to media afterward.

Montgomery confirmed that the decision to pull Binnington was meant to spark the team.

“Yeah — that, and I just wanted to shift momentum,” Montgomery said. “We’ve had a couple games where I wish I’d acted sooner. I didn’t want any regrets, so I made the switch.”

He added that he didn’t like what he was seeing from Binnington early and wanted backup Joel Hofer to try and change the tone of the game.

“I look at where the goals come from and whether they should go in,” Montgomery said. “You usually let goalies battle through it, but sometimes when a goalie looks off — just like a skater — you pull back his minutes.

“A forward loses a couple minutes and nobody notices. But with a goalie, everyone sees it.”

Despite the tension, Montgomery was quick to praise Binnington afterward.

“I love Jordan Binnington,” he said. “He’s a competitor. He shows up in big moments. When he walked off the ice he said, ‘I love you!’ and I said, ‘I love you too!’ We’re both competitive. After the period, he waited for me, we apologized, and that was that. It’s over.”

Binnington later explained his side of the emotional moment.

“You prepare expecting to play 60 minutes. That’s what you want as a competitor,” he said. “I felt good, so yeah — I wasn’t happy. That’s who I am. I had 50 minutes of energy left, so I let some of it out. People know I live in the moment.”

His teammates didn’t seem bothered by the outburst.

“We’re all competitive,” defenseman Cam Fowler said. “I like seeing that fire from him.”

Jake Neighbours echoed that sentiment: “That’s just Binner. He wants to battle, he wants to be out there with us. That competitive edge is what we love about him.”