Monday Links, News, and Notes: Binnington Injury, Kadri Controversy, Free Agent Signing and More!

Welcome to the Victoria Day edition of Links, News, and Notes. Hope everyone is enjoying some well-deserved time off with friends and family. Let’s take a spin around the world of hockey:

• Jordan Binnington will miss at least the rest of the St.Louis Blues’ second round series against the Colorado Avalanche after sustaining a knee injury in game three. The injury occured when Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen got tangled up and fell onto Binnington. Kadri being who he is, the Blues certainly thought it was intentional:/

“Look at Kadri’s reputation, that’s all I have to say.”

- Craig Berube on the Binnington collision. pic.twitter.com/LJeiUxNbCi

— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) May 22, 2022

• Binnington being who he is, he took some time out of his evening after the injury to throw a water bottle at Kadri while the Avs player was doing an interview with TNT.
• While Binnington’s attempt at vengeance just came off as childish pettiness, Kadri has reportedly been on the receiving end of some real death threats. Regardless of how you feel about Kadri (or Binnington) there just cannot be a place for that type of thing.
• As if the Battle of Alberta needed any more animosity, Milan Lucic went and ran over Mike Smith in last night’s Game 3. The 33 year-old Lucic is nothing more than a bit player at this stage of his career, averaging less than 10 minutes a game in the play-offs, so I guess he decided he was going to try to impact the series in a different way?
• In other injury news from the Colorado-St.Louis series, the Avs will be without Samuel Girard for the rest of the season as she suffered a broken sternum.
• Over at the Athletic, Ian Mendes has a nice feature on just how the Ottawa Senators can leverage their marketing department to get some excitement going ahead of next season.
• After a disappointing finish to the Dallas Stars season, Rick Bowness has stepped down as coach. The Stars made a somewhat unexpected run to the Cup finals in 2020 but haven’t been able to repeat their success the last two seasons.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed trade deadline acquisition Mark Giordano to a 2 year deal worth 1.6M. On the one hand Giordano is 38, so he might turn into dust next year, but on the other hand he was very solid for the Leafs and the cost is virtually nothing.
• Speaking of signing, the Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms with pending UFA Bryan Rust on a six year, $30.75M contract. Rust is 30 so it’s possible the Pens might not enjoy the last few seasons of the deal but the $5.125M AAV looks like it could be a steal in the short-term./