The St. Louis Blues...look bad

[sfvega]

Really? His numbers look pretty ugly for a guy who's been solid. His Rel xGF is -5.8%!

That's a hell of a thing to say about a guy's real ex-girlfriend.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

Blues aren't bad, they just have a shit goalie

 

[rumrokh]

Blues aren't bad, they just have a **** goalie

And a bad coach.

The goalie might be messing with their confidence, and there have been flashes, even a couple straight periods of good play, but the problems this year extend way, way, way beyond goaltending. The system has oscillated between bizarre and non-existent and they sit some players who look fine while continuing to ice others after multiple goals are pretty much solely their faults.

They definitely have the ability to bounce back and turn in a good season, even under Yeo, even with Allen in net, but they might be doomed to mediocrity until they fix both of them, not just the goalie.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

And a bad coach.

The goalie might be messing with their confidence, and there have been flashes, even a couple straight periods of good play, but the problems this year extend way, way, way beyond goaltending. The system has oscillated between bizarre and non-existent and they sit some players who look fine while continuing to ice others after multiple goals are pretty much solely their faults.

They definitely have the ability to bounce back and turn in a good season, even under Yeo, even with Allen in net, but they might be doomed to mediocrity until they fix both of them, not just the goalie.

the problems the Blues are facing is eerily similar to the Kings

but still, if the Blues had a legit #1 goalie, i feel they'd be closer to .500 and not many would complain

however i understand what you are saying and i agree

 

[GellMann]

Slow team makes big acquisition of slow player. What could go wrong?

O’Reilly is a good player and will be one of the best players on your team, but he really needs to be on a team with good speed around him. I sort of feel bad for him, because other than the season in which Colorado made the playoffs, he’s generally been on the wrong type of team to really utilize his skill set.

As has already been said, considering that "slow team" is scoring at a 3.6 goals per game pace, but has team goaltending at far-below-.900 save percentage, this just looks like a goofy attempt to validate a bad take that would get shot down by anyone actually watching the blues.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Can anyone coach in this league? Apparently not according to HF Boards.

 

[rumrokh]

Can anyone coach in this league? Apparently not according to HF Boards.

Get an NHL tv subscription and go watch all of the Blues games to see the glorious failure of man-on-man coverage. The Blues missed the playoffs last year and the main criticism fans had of Yeo was the powerplay. Goaltending and injuries were the excuse and as long as they could cure the powerplay disease and stay healthy, they'd be contenders. But you can clearly tell they're being coached away from success right now. Even in their victories, they have long stretches of looking lost because struggling players are getting overused and they can't decide between plays that actually work and what they're being told to do at even-strength.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Get an NHL tv subscription and go watch all of the Blues games to see the glorious failure of man-on-man coverage. The Blues missed the playoffs last year and the main criticism fans had of Yeo was the powerplay. Goaltending and injuries were the excuse and as long as they could cure the powerplay disease and stay healthy, they'd be contenders. But you can clearly tell they're being coached away from success right now. Even in their victories, they have long stretches of looking lost because struggling players are getting overused and they can't decide between plays that actually work and what they're being told to do at even-strength.

I live in St. Louis. I watch plenty of Blues games. I was just making the point that there's always a live thread on ever team's board that is set-up to pillory the coaching staff. Is Yeo a great coach? Is he the right coach for this team? Debatable. I think he's getting undermined by terrible defense and goaltending.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

Like every off season. Just watch, the same thingll happen against next off season. Its tradition here Ive noticed

You weren’t a part of this thread NEARLY enough.

 

[Celtic Note]

I live in St. Louis. I watch plenty of Blues games. I was just making the point that there's always a live thread on ever team's board that is set-up to pillory the coaching staff. Is Yeo a great coach? Is he the right coach for this team? Debatable. I think he's getting undermined by terrible defense and goaltending.

Defense isn’t the problem. They have defended very well before. The problem is their structure and how aggressively they are engaging offensively. These are coaching issues. Goaltending hasn’t been good either.

As for the league, I don’t think there are as many good coaches in the league now (some of the guys now that aren’t good, could get there). I would attribute it to the massive shifts in the league. Even within the last two-three years, there has been so much change. There are younger players. Faster players. Changing rules. There is a lot to adapt to right now.

The long term coaches are getting squeezed out in favor of younger guys. The young players are a big part of the reason. They were coached quite differently than their predecessors from ten years ago. So NHL coaches needed to basically sync up old styles of play that older players grew into with the newer styles emerging. In a few years when things have fully transitioned and settleded down a bit, I think we will see more good coaches in the league. Right now to me just seems like a learning and transition period.

 

[rumrokh]

I live in St. Louis. I watch plenty of Blues games. I was just making the point that there's always a live thread on ever team's board that is set-up to pillory the coaching staff. Is Yeo a great coach? Is he the right coach for this team? Debatable. I think he's getting undermined by terrible defense and goaltending.

Your point would make sense if the flaws in defense were performance problems before they were systemic. And then, if players failed, Yeo would bench them instead of throwing them back out as often as possible.

 

[stokes84]

As has already been said, considering that "slow team" is scoring at a 3.6 goals per game pace, but has team goaltending at far-below-.900 save percentage, this just looks like a goofy attempt to validate a bad take that would get shot down by anyone actually watching the blues.

Are you suggesting that being a slow team doesn’t hurt the defensive side as well? You watched the Sabres not be able to close gaps or backcheck effectively for the last five+ seasons, so I hope this isn’t your take.

 

[57special]

Yeo's teams tend to have a very sound defensive structure and an aggressive forecheck. Effort is very important to make it all work. When his system is working right, it keeps them in just about every game.

In the past, It was thought that the PP, and his propensity for playing aging grinders with average skill ( AKA " YeoBots") over young players with upside was a possible weakness. Certainly is for fans who want to see freewheeling, offensive hockey.

I don't think he is a bad coach. Jury is out on whether he is merely average.

As I said earlier, I think STL will be fine, assuming that they get decent goaltending. The Central is a bugger, though.

 

[Oberyn]

Are you suggesting that being a slow team doesn’t hurt the defensive side as well? You watched the Sabres not be able to close gaps or backcheck effectively for the last five+ seasons, so I hope this isn’t your take.

How are the Blues slow? ROR isn't roadrunner out there, but he is at least average in terms of speed. They dropped Berglund, Sobotka, and Jaskin who are all slow as molasses, and picked up Bozak and Perron who are average to above average skaters. Maroon is slow, I'll give you that one. The Blues defense are all quite mobile with Edmundson probably being the slowest, but his speed is still fine. Bouwmeester is flat out atrocious, but that's a culmination of several factors.

The Blues basically dropped their slowest players in Berglund, Jaskin, and Sobotka, and all of a sudden are worse defensively which doesn't add up with what you're trying to convey.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Yeo's teams tend to have a very sound defensive structure and an aggressive forecheck. Effort is very important to make it all work. When his system is working right, it keeps them in just about every game.

In the past, It was thought that the PP, and his propensity for playing aging grinders with average skill ( AKA " YeoBots") over young players with upside was a possible weakness. Certainly is for fans who want to see freewheeling, offensive hockey.

I don't think he is a bad coach. Jury is out on whether he is merely average.

As I said earlier, I think STL will be fine, assuming that they get decent goaltending. The Central is a bugger, though.

Did he ever try to run a man to man with the aggressive forecheck and a 2-3 in transition? It’s what we started the season with and it was complete chaos. We are giving up so many goals/high danger chances (outside of poor turnovers from defensemen) on the forwards leaving the middle of the ice open. I presume this is due to them playing m2m and chasing their responsibilities around the ice. And then when they get best for a split second off of the puck the middle or at least the slot is wide open for a guy streaking because somehow it’s 3 on 2 in the d zone with one forward lost

 

[rynryn]

who knows, really. the comment sections were full of people blaming Yeo for our players not shooting the puck completely ignoring all the times he lamented the players not taking the shot when it presented itself. Coach gets shit on for players making bad choices sometimes too.

Not going to wish STL good luck. Like i said before they're capable of going on a dominant unbeaten streak too (coach will get no credit for this) and whatever system you want to say is or isn't working for a coach they looked streaky AF under their last one, too. As a Wild fan I really hope it's a funk they don't snap out of but I don't think we're that lucky.

 

[Dbrownss]

They’re on pace for career highs by like 15-40 points. It is very, very rare that middle aged players suddenly bust out career high seasons that far above their career average.

Just cause worse contracts have been signed doesn’t mean that Bozak’s contract is anything but terrible. If somebody punches you in the face and steals your wallet, are you going to say “not a big deal, Hitler did something much worse”?

I think ROR and Perron will have career highs but will come back down to earth some. 70-80pt range for Orielly but I could see Perron going 60-70 at best. While not the 90pt+ they are pacing.....I wouldn't call them overrated acquisitions.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

I think ROR and Perron will have career highs but will come back down to earth some. 70-80pt range for Orielly but I could see Perron going 60-70 at best. While not the 90pt+ they are pacing.....I wouldn't call them overrated acquisitions.

Doesn't really matter either way. Perron could break Gretzky's goal records and still would'nt show up in the playoffs.

 

[Cloned]

Did he ever try to run a man to man with the aggressive forecheck and a 2-3 in transition? It’s what we started the season with and it was complete chaos. We are giving up so many goals/high danger chances (outside of poor turnovers from defensemen) on the forwards leaving the middle of the ice open. I presume this is due to them playing m2m and chasing their responsibilities around the ice. And then when they get best for a split second off of the puck the middle or at least the slot is wide open for a guy streaking because somehow it’s 3 on 2 in the d zone with one forward lost

To be fair, the Oilers this year are pretty much running the same systems. They're playing man-to-man in the d-zone with a lot of switching, and an aggressive 2-man deep forecheck. And they look good doing it so far, so it can be done.

Either Yeo isn't teaching it properly or the players aren't executing it well. Poor goaltending also plays a huge part.

 

[Battle Lin]

surprised too, they made great offseason moves and the team looks great on paper...there was a lot of changes to the team, they can still turn it around, its early enough

 

[Dbrownss]

Doesn't really matter either way. Perron could break Gretzky's goal records and still would'nt show up in the playoffs.

I dont think that's will matter this year

 

[TaLoN]

I live in St. Louis. I watch plenty of Blues games. I was just making the point that there's always a live thread on ever team's board that is set-up to pillory the coaching staff. Is Yeo a great coach? Is he the right coach for this team? Debatable. I think he's getting undermined by terrible defense and goaltending.

Wild fans a plenty happy with Bruce Boudreau as coach. Does he do some questionable things at times? Sure, no coach is perfect, but the Wild board here on the HF forums doesn't have a thread dedicated to discuss coaching at all right now because we're generally pleased with the overall coaching.

Of course, we went from Yeo to BB, so we have very recent experience with a coach who couldn't get out of his own way, that we realize how good we have it now conversely.