ST. LOUIS — NHL goalie "controversies" have always confounded me.
If you're a team with playoff aspirations, yes you hopefully have a guy you were counting on at the beginning of the season to get you there.
He probably has more experience and is making more money, so it's his gig. He's the guy.
But as the season progresses, maybe he doesn't look like the guy at some point or another. So you put in the hungry backup and he takes off.
And now there's a "goalie controversy" that eats up time on local sports talk radio for segments and days on end.
But as long as one guy is winning at the moment, there really isn't much of a cause for concern, is there?
That's what the Blues have going right now.
Now I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some sort of "goalie whisperer". I'm just a guy who likes to watch hockey and happens to watch a lot of St. Louis Blues hockey.
And as someone who watches a lot of Blues games, it's been pretty evident Ville Husso has been more effective than Jordan Binnington. It doesn't take a trained hockey eye to see it.
This shouldn't be a touchy subject. The eye-test and the numbers both back it up, and it's past the time we can call it a small sample size.
In 15 games, Husso is 9-3 with a 1.90 goals-against average, .941 save percentage and two shutouts. In 23 games, Binnington is 11-9 with a 3.27 goals-against average, .901 save percentage and one shutout.
In fact, Husso still has the best GAA and save percentage of any goalie in hockey who's played at least six games this season.
In the last five games he's appeared in, Husso has allowed just five goals on 131 shots. In Binnington's last five games he's appeared in he's allowed 23 goals on 176 shots.
Yes, Binnington is paid to be the starter, and the Blues' plan to bring home another Stanley Cup seems more complete when he is the starter. But he's pretty obviously not playing as well as his backup right now.
So, you keep playing the backup.
If you remember, we've seen this before. Heck, we wouldn't even know who Jordan Binnington was had he not gotten a shot to take over for Jake Allen in 2019. I seem to recall that ending pretty well.
Berube has played the hot hand heading into the All-Star break and should continue to do so coming out of it. Husso has proven to be the better option and should get to keep doing so until Binnington shows back up and knocks him off.
The competition between the two for playing time should only be a good thing.
There's no "controversy" here.
You play Husso until he stumbles or Binnington gets back to the level of play we expect from him.
And honestly, I don't have much doubt he will. The recent Jordan Binnington is not the goalie he is at his best, or even just his good.
While it's probably unfair to expect him to recapture the magic of the 2019 Cup run, we all know Binnington is better than his stats have shown. And now it's time for him to prove it.
He'll still get his chances, but for now, riding the hot hand of Husso is the Blues' best play.