What Is Your Biggest Gripe With Yeo?(Bonus Hot Seat Tracker)

[The Note]

What about Yeo drives you nuts? It seems to be a topic that is prevelant in most threads. Whether it’s the fact an Amber alert needs to be issued for Kyrou and Thomas each game, or the defensive zone “scheme” is a clown car full of puke, or the still disjointed PP, or is it something else entirely? I included some options to vote on, but feel free to use this as a general discussion on the coaching staff/ongoing “Hot Seat” talk.

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[Alklha]

The fact he is coaching the Blues.

But seriously, right now it is probably his handling of the roster. All the other crap we've almost come to expect, and frankly we can get through on talent, but now it's like he's actively wanting to sabotage morale.

Just because Dunn had a good season last year doesn't mean he is always in the team now, however it absolutely should buy a longer leash than 2 games. It is also incredibly stupid to be benching him after a play where he will feel responsible for a loss.

 

[Halak Ness Monster]

Probably the handling of the youth.

There just doesn't seem to be much of a plan there. Kyrou and Thomas don't have to play in a tie game late vs. Chicago. But they should be out there for more than 7 minutes when we have a 3-4 goal lead against Calgary.

I don't know what he is looking for on defense. What is he seeing from Jerabek in practice that absolutely wasn't there last night in the game? He was awful. Meanwhile Schmaltz looked steady in his one game. Butler looked WAY better too. There's really no reason to bench Dunn ever again for Jerabek.

As for the power play, I think it looked great last night. Some troubles on the entry at times but we have 4 power play goals in the last 2 games so I don't see how this is a major gripe right now. O'Reilly is a beast on there. Parayko is looking more intent on actually scoring than ever before. Maroon is a great net front presence. The puck movement is only going to get better as the new faces blend in. I'm liking this power play. Probably because the skill is outstanding.

 

[Majorityof1]

PP and defensive scheme can be delegated to other coaches. I mean, not for us, since our assistant coaches suck at those areas as well apparently. But we could potentially go out and hire Oates for PP. A head coach cannot delegte how he handles and develops youth. So while the other two are probably more critical to our short-term success, I vote for how he handles youth. We can fire Yeo if the PP and defense don't figure themselves out. We could be set back for years if he stunts the growth of our talented youngsters.

 

[Dbrownss]

The defense. Even when at its "peak" I didnt like it

 

[Stealth JD]

He's not the guy to get this team to the next level. All of the options, including the Bond Villian-vibe, give me reason to think that he's holding the club back more than propelling them forward. Maybe they'll all come together in the next three months and make us all look stupid. If the power-play gets right, the kids get integrated and Jake resembles a decent-to-almost-good goaltender the Blues are going to climb the standings and Yeo is going to get a hell of a lot smarter very quickly.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

He's always putting the toilet paper rolls on upside down!

 

[BlueDream]

Damn, looking at this poll really hits home that we are f***ed with this guy.

 

[Stealth JD]

Damn, looking at this poll really hits home that we are ****ed with this guy.

And then they'll go 9-0-3 at some point in December and there will be a thread that says "Perhaps we were all wrong about Yeo - this team has really responded!".

 

[BlueDream]

And then they'll go 9-0-3 at some point in December and there will be a thread that says "Perhaps we were all wrong about Yeo - this team has really responded!".

I don’t think I’ll ever give Yeo credit for much anymore unless he really shocks me with something. This roster has enough talent to go on a winning streak like that at any time. I doubt the head coach will have a whole lot to do with it.

 

[ort]

He just doesn't seem to do much of anything well. His power plays suck, his penalty kills suck, the team doesn't seem to play a cohesive defensive system, they never seem motivated, their zone entries and transition game isn't so hot, he doesn't give the forwards much freedom, he doesn't seem to adapt well during games, he just keeps trying the same stuff over and over...

We need a modern dynamic coach. Yeo feels like a nice guy hitchcock light...

This is a pretty new roster, so we'll see... but the last few years I don't think his style was a good match for the Blues roster. Yeo seems like a good guy to get something better out of a very mediocre lineup... not the guy to push a dynamic roster to the next level.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

PP and defensive scheme can be delegated to other coaches. I mean, not for us, since our assistant coaches suck at those areas as well apparently. But we could potentially go out and hire Oates for PP. A head coach cannot delegte how he handles and develops youth. So while the other two are probably more critical to our short-term success, I vote for how he handles youth. We can fire Yeo if the PP and defense don't figure themselves out. We could be set back for years if he stunts the growth of our talented youngsters.

I agree with the overall point, but as a practical point Yeo can’t hire Adam Oates, or at least won’t hire him. Oates was Parise and Suter’s personal skills coach and was hovering around Minnesota when the axe fell there. I know you mean a good PP coach that can cover that deficiency, doesn’t have to be specifically Adam Oates.

Still, this is an interesting read overall, with Russo interviewing Yeo right after it went bad with the Wild. A little uncanny at points.

Mike Yeo on being fired: 'I wasn't prepared for what it would feel like'

[Former NHL coach Adam Oates was hired before the season by several players as a personal coach; two of the players were Zach Parise and Ryan Suter of the Wild.] When you say things never felt right, did this start with the Adam Oates stuff? “Yeah. I thought we dealt with it. We talked with Zach, and we had no issues with it after that. And talked with some players, and … Whether it’s something like that, whether it’s the trade rumors, whatever it is, when there’s things that might cause a little unrest, they kind of sit there and they hang out. When things are going well, they’re forgotten and pushed to the side. But when things don’t go well, quite often they come back.”


Did it bother you that Oates came to the Buffalo morning skate [Jan. 12]? That was at the start of the tailspin? “I’m not going to even comment on it. But I would say, that I would not do the same thing.”

 

[LetsGoBooze]

I'll come back to this thread 10 games in. I want to get a better feel for the pulse of this team before i place a judgement. Last year i would say hands down the PP. However, this season I see improvements already on this issue.

TBD.... gets my vote.

 

[Brian39]

I voted other: with the amount of angry water sips per 60 we see out of him, he is just killing the environment by not investing in a reusable water bottle.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I'll go on record as being someone that still has faith Yeo can take this team to the promised land. I think the first half of this season will tell though. If the PP isn't significantly better than last year, I change my mind. He has all the roster tools he needs to make something scary. If he's not up to that task, I think he is the wrong guy. But I like his blend of fire and intellectual approach. He's also young and hungry. I think some of the older established coaches start to lose that edge after so many years. Hitchcock seemed to be missing something in the post-season, I thought. He seemed to just put it on the players to have to want it. I think a guy like Yeo's generation is more likely to inject his own passion into the team.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Upon seeing the title, two things game to mind, neither of which are voting options.

- I guess one is similar to how he handles the youth but to me, it’s how he handles everyone. He just doesn’t seem to be that personable. Very blunt. What does he do to get the best out of these guys? Between the carrot and the stick, he seems to almost always choose the stick. Between vinegar and honey, he almost always seems to choose vinegar. To me, those types of bosses burn guys out, make them disgruntled and it hurts performance. I want a coach that inspires the players to where they’d go through a brick wall for him. No matter how good a guy is at Xs and Os, if he can’t get the guys to buy in, it doesn’t really matter.

The 2nd is that I just don’t think he’s creative enough or can adapt to changes mid-game well enough. Pretty much all coaches preach similar things but his schematics just seem fairly bland. But where he gets outcoached a lot IMO is in-game adjustments. He doesn’t seem to adapt well when the opposition makes an adjustment and he needs to make a counter-adjustment.

 

[carter333167]

I don’t like double-speak and Yeo has given us plenty of it concerning earning playing time. Honesty wins in my book.

 

[The Note]

He just doesn't seem to do much of anything well. His power plays suck, his penalty kills suck, the team doesn't seem to play a cohesive defensive system, they never seem motivated, their zone entries and transition game isn't so hot, he doesn't give the forwards much freedom, he doesn't seem to adapt well during games, he just keeps trying the same stuff over and over...

We need a modern dynamic coach. Yeo feels like a nice guy hitchcock light...

This is a pretty new roster, so we'll see... but the last few years I don't think his style was a good match for the Blues roster. Yeo seems like a good guy to get something better out of a very mediocre lineup... not the guy to push a dynamic roster to the next level.

I think this is something that dawned on me recently. What competitive advantage does Yeo provide? With Hitch you knew the team was going to play a structured game especially in the defensive zone and the special teams were going to be strong. I really don’t know what Yeo does well.

 

[Renard]

Is Jacque Demers available?

 

[yogintheaveragebears]

I may be completely wrong here but wasn't he touted as a players coach? Whenever I hear that I think of rex ryan

 

[Old Blueser]

My main issue with Yeo is the team doesn't have an identity. I had issues with Hitch, but you knew what the team was trying to do. With Yeo, the stated goals of the team aren't played out consistently on the ice, they play one way for a period and then abandon it, and there's a kind of mental weakness, lack of resilience, too. Not being able to play with a lead, slumping when they give up a goal, etc.

It's pretty concerning, too, when three games in we are already talking about him falling back on conservative habits, like playing Petro with Bouw. It's like he doesn't have any real ideas of his own, or any confidence in his ideas, and reverts back to "Steen and Bouwmeester know how to play hockey, let's run them out there for 20 plus minutes and see how that works."

 

[converseman54]

His head is too shiny. It's distracting

 

[Mike Liut]

For you Seinfeld watchers, doesn’t Yeo look like the guy who tried to pull in the parking spot straight in while George was trying to back in? They were arguing and neither one would budge and were holding up traffic.

 

[STL fan in MN]

While my main beef with Yeo is how he treats everyone, I do feel how he specifically treats youth is getting a bit overblown. He does seem to give them a shorter leash than the vets but what coach doesn’t do that?

Again, I don’t really like him from a personable standpoint but he’s also the guy that was willing to go with a very non-traditional 4th line of Blais-Thomas-Barbs and put Kyrou on a scoring line when going into camp, Kyrou was penciled onto the SA lineup. And gave Dunn a chance a year ago. And now it looks like Blais and Thomas will get some more time and responsibility while Schwartz is out. Given how lost Kyrou is defensively, how Blais is still inconsistent and still pretty bad defensively too and Thomas a teenager, I’m fine with the responsibilities he’s giving these 3 so far.

Are there some things to be concerned with regarding how Yeo handles youth? Yes, but IMO, I think it’s more a problem in how he handles everyone - his abrasive personality. So while how he handles the kids sometimes irks me, I do think it’s being blown up a bit as well.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

For you Seinfeld watchers, doesn’t Yeo look like the guy who tried to pull in the parking spot straight in while George was trying to back in? They were arguing and neither one would budge and were holding up traffic.

The bookie, who got his thumbs broken?