WINNIPEG — St. Louis Blues rookie goalie Jordan Binnington says he has grown up since teenage tweets about women in burkas and cab drivers who speak different languages.
The tweets, from 2013 and 2014, were dug up by California-based reporter Paul Gackle. The Winnipeg Free Press reported on the tweets in a story on Tuesday night.
Binnington addressed the subject when he was asked by a reporter about the tweets at Wednesday’s morning skate before the Blues faced the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of their NHL first-round playoff series.
"It was a while ago when I was a teenager and it was a little sarcasm, joking around," said Binnington, a 25-year-old native of Richmond Hill, Ont.
"I was a teenager and that’s what life’s about. You live and learn and you grow as a human so, you know, I’m just here to play a couple hockey games."
In the first tweet on Jan. 24, 2013, Binnington wrote, "I was thinking. when people who wear the burkas are at the airport how is the security able to see if that’s them in their passport… Srsly."
In the second tweet a few minutes later, he wrote, "Also If you’re underage & nervous of getting into a bar, throw the damn burka on. no way the bouncer will get into that awkward questioning."
Another tweet on Oct. 21, 2014, read, "Ya taxi man I’d probably rather listen to the radio than listen to you talk on the phone in another language."
In a statement released later Wednesday, NHL deputy comissioner Bill Daly said no supplementary discipline is expected.
"These are five-year-old social media posts from a Player who wasn’t even a part of the National Hockey League at the time," Daly said. "While we certainly don’t condone public comments that can be perceived as insensitive, we haven’t seen anything to this point that would cause us to take any kind of action in response to these posts."
Blues head coach Craig Berube said he wasn’t commenting about his netminder’s past tweets.
"He’s already addressed it. I’m just taking hockey questions," he said.
Binnington’s teammates didn’t want to get drawn into topic.
"I haven’t seen the tweets or anything so I’m not going to answer your questions about that right now," forward Jaden Schwartz said. "We’re just going to go play hockey."
When asked to describe Binnington’s character, he replied, "Nothing but good things to say about him."
St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo declined to answer questions about subjects outside of hockey.
Binnington also was asked if the unearthing of the old tweets might affect him psychologically heading into the playoffs.
"We’re just preparing for the game tonight," he said. "Obviously it’s a big playoff series. We’re happy to be in the playoffs. It’s an exciting time of year, this is when you want to play. We’re just preparing for that game."
Binnington has become a rising star for the Blues.
St. Louis was sitting in the league’s basement in early January this year when Binnington was handed his first start Jan. 7. He proceeded to go on a 13-1-1 run and finished 24-5-1 in 30 starts with a 1.89 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
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