Chris Jones reports from Milan.
Jordan Binnington doesn’t have habits. He has rituals.
After he led Canada’s men out for warmups before their Olympics opener against Czechia Thursday, he found a bundle of pucks and skated behind his net, same as always. He began banking clearances to his left and right, reading the caroms off the glass and boards, futureproofing himself against bad bounces.
Then he skated into his goal and readied to warm up his hands. Puck after puck came his way. Puck after puck found his glove, like dozens of birds landing in the same nest.
“I’m just in my own process, my day-to-day, doing my thing,” he said after he turned his pre-game rituals into in-game reality. Canada was dominant in a 5-0 win, and Binnington stopped 26 shots, including a terrific sprawling save on David Kampf when the game was still scoreless.
Entering the first best-on-best Olympics since 2014, Canada’s goaltending, and Binnington’s seeming hold on the starting job over Logan Thompson and Darcy Kuemper, was the most divisive internal and external argument, a microcosm of the forever debate between numbers and feel.
Five different players scored and Jordan Binnington made 26 saves in net, as Canada opened their Milano Cortina 2026 men’s tournament with a 5-0 victory over Czechia.
Binnington has a reputation for elevating his play when it matters most, the way he did during last February’s 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. But he’s enduring a miserable NHL season. His .864 save percentage with bottom-dwelling St. Louis is the third worst in the league, and his 3.64 goals against average is the second worst.
Thompson, who was named Thursday’s backup, doesn’t have the same experience or aura but is in much better form, with a .912 save percentage and 2.45 goals against average, both in the top 10 among NHL goaltenders.
Jon Cooper, Canada’s head coach, has never really wavered in his commitment to Binnington, despite his refusal to name him the first-game starter beforehand.
Even Binnington wasn’t sure when he’d found out. “Sometime [Wednesday], maybe?” he said.
After Thursday’s win, Cooper was asked when, in fact, he’d made his decision.
“Probably 358 days ago,” he said, referring to the 4 Nations, when Binnington made several stunning saves against the Americans in the final, essentially winning the game.
“He needs to perform,” Cooper said. “This isn’t a loyalty thing. But I have the utmost confidence in that kid. He’s proven it, even when he’s had little stumbles, when push comes to shove, the kid’s been there for us… I feel like he’s deserved this opportunity. You gotta give the kid a shot.”
The kid, who’s 32 years old, took it.
He was spectacular on those few occasions when he had to be. The rest of the game, he was smooth, calm, unhurried. Though known for his temper and stickwork, he remained measured throughout, excepting early hacks to Kampf and Tomas Hertl, as though to remind them of his capabilities.
Jordan Binnington made 26 saves, and refused to be intimidated when Radek Faksa ran him over in the crease, as Binnington and Canada blanked Czechia 5-0 in their men’s Olympic hockey opener.
What ultimately separated him from Lukas Dostal, his Czech counterpart, was his softness and puck gathering. Dostal gave up a succession of rebounds; Binnington rarely allowed a second chance.
“He’s a big-moment guy, and that’s the biggest compliment you can pay,” Connor McDavid said. “No different tonight. He’s a calming presence for us for sure.”
That calmness will prove necessary: This tournament will be a very live wire. Thursday’s sellout crowd at Milano Santagiulia — the Canadians in attendance were outnumbered by thousands of passionate Czechs — was loud and engaged until the lopsided score muted it.
Early on, ordinary moments felt elevated. Plays of actual consequence felt literally seismic, as though the lights might get shaken loose from the rafters.
“I don’t care who anybody is,” Cooper said, “when you’re playing in the Olympics for the first time, it never gets old, and everybody’s got the jitters.”
If a preliminary game was that nervous making, the elimination games will be breathless.
Macklin Celebrini found the back of the net with six seconds left in the first period against Czechia, marking Canada’s first Olympic men’s hockey goal with NHL players since Chris Kunitz capped off Canada’s 3-0 gold medal win on February 23, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
“A pretty wild environment,” McDavid said.
Binnington, whose mental preparations rival his physical programming, remained impressively insulated from it. “I just stay in my own little world,” he said. He’s engaged fully in team activities and was animated during Canada’s viral field trip to watch short track, but as the opening game approached, he retreated to his self-made psychological cloister.
On Wednesday, he was asked, along with his general manager, coach, and several of his teammates, for his thoughts about the tragic mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge. He was the only one who hadn’t heard about it.
Cooper had said before the game that there’s “a really good chance” he’ll start Thompson against Switzerland on Friday.
“I’ve got a plan,” he said after it, calling the potential switch, especially in back-to-back games, “common practice.”
Cooper might now wish to reconsider, if only to allow Binnington’s own practices — common and uncommon at the same time — to become more deeply engrained.
Whenever Canada scored, he skated slowly to his left, tapping his stick on the ice — gently, deliberately, like a man finding his next step with his cane. Five times he did that, with nearly perfect repetition, and he didn’t have to dig a puck out of his own net once.
It’s a routine Jordan Binnington, and Canada’s hockey fans, could get used to.
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