The St. Louis Blues made a goaltending change by sending Chad Johnson down to the AHL and calling up Jordan Binnington. The move was chalked up as a performance decision as none of the goaltenders involved are dealing with injuries.
Johnson’s demotion reflects his extremely poor recent run of play. That run has been especially disappointing, albeit not surprising, following his strong start with the Blues.
Consider the stats below:
Chad Johnson in his first five appearances: 1.83 GAA, .941 SV%
Chad Johnson last five appearances: 5.06 GAA, .832 SV%#stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) December 10, 2018
Summarized, Johnson played above the mean in his first five games and below the mean in his last five games. Averaged out he’s at a 3.54 GAA and a .884 save percentage in 10 games with the Blues.
No one expected Johnson to come in and dominate, but the Blues had to hope he’d play closer to his 2016-17 where he had a 2.59 GAA and .910 save percentage than his 2017-18 where he had a 3.55 GAA and a .891 save percentage.
Johnson’s numbers this year are nearly identical to his numbers with the Buffalo Sabres last season. The idea was that he’d improve with a better roster in front of him with the Blues. That hasn’t been the case and you could argue that the Blues aren’t that different from the Sabres squad that finished at the bottom of the NHL’s standings.
Will Johnson be back this season? That all depends on how well Binnington can hold down the job.
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