The latest edition of Canada’s National Junior Hockey team is in Europe spending the next 9 days preparing for the World Junior Hockey Championship Tournament which begins Boxing Day at Ufa, Russia.
There’s something to be said for Jordan Binnington of the Owen Sound Attack who was one of the goalies selected for the Canadian entry.
Three years ago at this time, the World Under 17 Hockey Championship was being hosted in Timmins and when the Ontario squad was selected, Binnington was not.
Ontario elected to go with netminders Tyson Teichmann, a first round pick of the Belleville Bulls and Chris Festarini, an Erie Otters draft pick playing at the time with the Port Colborne Pirates.
For Binnington, already seeing some OHL action in Owen Sound at the time, the omission was a blow. It hurt. He tried to hide it, but there was no denying he was miffed.
Instead of being insulted or bitter at being chosen to be ” the emergency goalie ” for the tournament at Timmins, Binnington sucked it up and actually saw game action for Team Atlantic at the event when they encountered a dilemma in net.
From there, the story got better and better for Jordan Binnington.
He backstopped the Attack to Owen Sound’s only OHL Championship in the modern era, he was the goalie of the tournament at the 2011 Memorial Cup and has a resume of franchise records and a berth on Canada’s National Junior Team.
Of course, for Binnington, nothing comes easy or directly.
He & Malcolm Subban will dress for every game, but obviously only one can start.
Having been an emergency goaltender in international play once before, you can bet the next 9 days will see Jordan Binnington do everything in his power to be the starter..
I’m Fred Wallace