ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was not ignoring coach Jim Montgomery’s decision to pull him late in the Blues’ 7-3 loss to the host Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, Montgomery told The Athletic on Thursday morning.
Instead, backup goalie Joel Hofer was not ready to enter the game.
The Blackhawks took a 7-2 lead on a goal by Louis Crevier with 7 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in regulation. During the stoppage in play, the Blues decided to make a change in net.
“We had signaled back to make the goalie switch, and the lines of communication on the headset were not clear initially,” Montgomery said. “Joel Hofer wasn’t ready, and it kind of symbolizes last night’s play. Our special teams weren’t ready. Joel Hofer wasn’t ready.
“Binner had no issue. He knew what we were doing, so there was zero malcontent by Jordan Binnington. Ultimately, that all falls on me, that the goalie wasn’t ready to go in, because I’m the head coach and I’m the one in charge of this team. So, I’ve got to make sure the lines of communication are better.”
There was much speculation that Binnington was aware of the change but elected not to look at the bench and remain in the game. However, the TNT broadcast showed Binnington with his back to the crossbar, waiting for Hofer to step onto the ice.
The Blues couldn’t find Hofer so they couldn’t pull Binnington 😭 pic.twitter.com/Yp4MRjbS35
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2026
Approximately 1:20 after the goal was scored, Montgomery waved Binnington to the bench.
“I motioned to him, and he nodded to me, ‘Yes,’ ” Montgomery said.
However, Binnington still did not see Hofer, so he didn’t skate off.
“That’s common,” Montgomery said. “You don’t leave your crease until the other guy is skating toward you.”
About 12 seconds after Montgomery’s wave, the puck was dropped at center ice, and play resumed.
In many NHL rinks, the backup goalie sits on the bench with the team or in a tunnel that heads back to the locker room. But the setup is different in Chicago, where there’s no room for the backup to sit on the bench. Typically, the backup stays in the locker room during the game.
Hofer was in the locker room, and according to Montgomery, did not have the top half of his equipment or his jersey on.
“Someone had to go tell Hofer, and Hofer was half-dressed, so that was the delay,” Montgomery said. “It’s just not commonplace that guys are going to sit there in the dressing room (with all of their equipment on). Everybody, between periods, when they go back to the locker room, no one keeps their jersey on because you want to cool down.
“If you’re a goaltender, you have even more equipment on. It’s not cool in there like it is in the rink.”
Hofer eventually got his equipment on and came down the tunnel, but by then, play had resumed, and the decision was to let Binnington play out the game.
The visual of Hofer peeking around the hallway to the bench when dressed led to further speculation, on the broadcast and elsewhere, that he was hiding to avoid replacing Binnington. But, again, Montgomery said that wasn’t the case. It was just a matter of not being dressed on time.
Hofer wanted no business taking over for Binner 😂 pic.twitter.com/9K46rxlyoL
— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) January 8, 2026
“I’ve got to make sure that we have a meeting with our lines of communication,” Montgomery said. “And then Joel Hofer … I have to have a discussion with him about being ready.”
Former NHL goalie Henrik Lundqvist could sympathize with Hofer in the moment. On the TNT studio panel for Wednesday’s postgame show, he described the arrangement.
“In certain arenas, the benches are really tight, so then you sit in the locker room and watch the game,” he said. “And then if (a change) happens, you have to come in — sometimes it takes a minute for you to get ready.
“I’ve had a couple of instances — I remember in Winnipeg, I was backing up, and I was in the gym and other side watching the game. I was watching on TV, and I was like, ‘This does not look good.’ I could see them communicating, and it was, ‘Oh boy, I need to go in, get ready.’ ”
Why was Montgomery even making the change with a 7-2 score and just seven minutes to play?
“It wasn’t a goalie change that was affecting the game, because the score was 7-2,” he told The Athletic. “We were making the move to get him out of there, because our net-front defense and our penalty-kill wasn’t close to good enough.”
But with Binnington’s fiery reputation and an animated scene between the veteran goalie and Montgomery in December, when Binnington was pulled 10:24 into a start against the Anaheim Ducks after giving up two goals on five shots, the incident on Wednesday, on the surface, played into the narrative that there’s a beef between the two.
“There is absolutely nothing between Jordan Binnington and I,” Montgomery said. “You can ask Binner on his side of stuff, because I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m pretty confident. I love working with Jordan Binnington. We’ve had conversations, and the conversations are always based on trust and, on my end, an incredible respect for his work ethic and preparation.”
Montgomery said that he hasn’t talked to Binnington about the situation in Chicago, which shows it wasn’t about him.
“Much ado about nothing,” he said.