Tensions boiled over between the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche during their matchup, with old playoff grudges reigniting on the ice. Colorado was up 3–1 late in the second period when things got chippy. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington clearly had Nazem Kadri on his radar, still fuming from their playoff history. After a chaotic play around the net, Binnington turned and immediately started swinging his stick toward Kadri’s face during a scrum. Kadri didn’t back down either, skating past Binnington and chirping while the refs stepped in to separate them.
Kadri kept stirring the pot, flashing a smug grin and poking Binnington with his stick as tempers flared. Both sides ended up getting penalized. Kadri got hit with a 10-minute misconduct for drawing things out and trying to escalate the situation. Even his own coach agreed with the call, saying it dragged on too long and Kadri could have just skated away. Binnington was heated, Kadri stayed cocky, and both teams ended the exchange with heightened tension and a man each off the ice. The on-ice drama echoed the lingering animosity from past postseason battles, and it doesn’t look like it’s cooling off anytime soon.