If Yeo starts Allen tomorrow night like he hinted at in his post-game press conference, then he becomes Public Enemy #1 as far as I'm concerned. At that point, I would be proud to sponsor the #YeoMustGeo movement because he would clearly not understand what is the weakest link on the team he is supposedly "leading."
I don't have confidence in either goalie at this point. Hutton's injury came at the worst possible time and he was not good in Arizona when he came in as the backup. I hate judging a rusty goalie's performance in relief, so I don't think it is all that useful. But it's the only sample we have in the last month and before that Hutton only had 2 quality starts in his previous 6 and was sub-.880 in 3 of those games. He was also bad in relief in that stretch, but again I'm not sure how much weight to put in that.
I think Yeo's mistake with the goalies came by starting Allen instead of Hutton against Arizona. I agreed with riding Allen while Hutton was out and starting Allen in the 2 games after his return (SJ and Vegas). But there was no reason not to give Hutton a start on the tail end of back to backs on the road. After that debacle, starting Allen made sense against Washington and it made sense last night. And now here we, in a situation where you'd like to rely on Hutton this weekend but the decision not to start him against Arizona means you're guessing about his level of rust while staring at Hutton's stat line of 2-3-2, .881 SV% and 3.63 GAA since his start in Minnesota on 2/6/18.
I don't like Yeo's decision making that got us here. But now that we are here, I'd start Allen. Last night was a dumpster fire but his last 8 games are significantly better than Hutton's and he bounced back from a bad Chicago game well a couple weeks ago. I'm not confident that he won't get shelled, but I'm equally unconfident about Hutton making his first start in a month given his play in February. From an asset management standpoint, if you want to move Allen this summer then getting shelled tomorrow night isn't going to hurt his value nearly as much as benching him in a playoff chase. If he plays decently or well, it helps his value some.
I'm honestly not sure whether Yeo is riding Allen because he believes he will bounce back or if he is simply giving him the chance to play himself out of town.
Edit for more stats, none of them pretty:
Hutton' stats since the start of February: 7 starts, 3-3-2, .895 SV% and 3.15 GAA. Pulled once in those 7 starts and posted a sub-.880 in 3 of those 7 starts (43%).
Allen's stats since the start of March: 13 starts, 8-5-1, .910 and 2.46 GAA. Pulled once in those 13 starts and posted a sub-.880 in 6 of those starts (46%).
Allen's stats since the start of February: 20 starts, 9-10-1, .899 SV% and 2.75 GAA. Pulled in 2 of those starts and posted a sub-.880 in 10 of those starts (50%).
