Blues head coach questions Kadri's reputation, gets shredded on social media for uttering a racial slur in the past
Last night, during Game 3 between the Blues and the Avalanche, we saw a situation unfold just before the midway point in the first period that has people divided. With around 7 minutes elapsed in the contest, Avs forward Nazem Kadri was driving the net in an attempt to bat in a rebound given up be Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, when he was clipped by Blues defender Calle Rosen, sending the pair crashing into Binnington, injuring him on the play.
Binnington was none too pleased with the play and the resulting injury. The evidence of that was following the game when he whipped a water bottle at Kadri while the Avs forward was in the middle of an interview with the NHL on TNT crew.
Blues head coach Craig Berube wasn't too pleased with the situation either. He was a man of few words on the subject during his post-game media availability, pointing only to Kadri's reputation as a bit of a hot-head who has been responsible for many questionable plays in his NHL career.
Well, Berube is now being called out for his opinion on the matter, with people on social media bringing up his past reputation as well - namely, one specific incident in which he was suspended for uttering a racial slur at an opponent during his time as an NHL player.
I suspect that the insinuation here is that Berube has a racially motivated incident in his background and that he's taking issue with the hit on Binnington and absolving his own defenseman of any wrongdoing, yet vilifying Kadri because he's a member of the POC community.
I'm not going to claim to know what's going on inside Berube's head and what's inside his heart, but it does seem like a bit of a reach in this specific incident. I think, more than anything else, he's simply upset that his starting goaltender was injured and that the result of the game was a loss in a game that he felt they could have won, were it not for the collision.
I don't think there's any question though that Rosen was equally, if not more, to blame in the collision with Binnington. Rosen was the one who initiated the contact with Kadri as the two were moving with speed. Rosen was also the first of the two players to make contact with Binnington. Just some food for thought.
