ST. LOUIS \u2014 St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was not ignoring coach Jim Montgomery\u2019s decision to pull him late in the Blues\u2019 7-3 loss to the host Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, Montgomery told The Athletic on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Instead, backup goalie Joel Hofer was not ready to enter the game.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had signaled back to make the goalie switch, and the lines of communication on the headset were not clear initially,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cJoel Hofer wasn\u2019t ready, and it kind of symbolizes last night\u2019s play. Our special teams weren\u2019t ready. Joel Hofer wasn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cBinner 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\u2019t ready to go in, because I\u2019m the head coach and I\u2019m the one in charge of this team. So, I\u2019ve got to make sure the lines of communication are better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Blues couldn’t find Hofer so they couldn’t pull Binnington \ud83d\ude2d pic.twitter.com\/Yp4MRjbS35<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 B\/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Approximately 1:20 after the goal was scored, Montgomery waved Binnington to the bench.<\/p>\n \u201cI motioned to him, and he nodded to me, \u2018Yes,\u2019\u2009\u201d Montgomery said.<\/p>\n However, Binnington still did not see Hofer, so he didn\u2019t skate off.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s common,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cYou don\u2019t leave your crease until the other guy is skating toward you.\u201d<\/p>\n About 12 seconds after Montgomery\u2019s wave, the puck was dropped at center ice, and play resumed.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s no room for the backup to sit on the bench. Typically, the backup stays in the locker room during the game.<\/p>\n Hofer was in the locker room, and according to Montgomery, did not have the top half of his equipment or his jersey on.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone had to go tell Hofer, and Hofer was half-dressed, so that was the delay,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a goaltender, you have even more equipment on. It\u2019s not cool in there like it is in the rink.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t the case. It was just a matter of not being dressed on time.<\/p>\n Hofer wanted no business taking over for Binner \ud83d\ude02 pic.twitter.com\/9K46rxlyoL<\/a><\/p>\n