St. Louis Blues – Page 5 – Faxes from Uncle Dale

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Game #19 – Blues vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: Jabe O’Meester And Sunk Cost

By Sam Fels November 14, 2018 1684 0

There is a modicum of respect you have to pay a veteran, no matter what kind of shit-heep he’s turned into. So when a player like Jay Bouwmeester ends up a healthy scratch, as he’s done a couple times this season, the coach and his teammates have to read from the script from the box marked, “Veteran Scratched Act Sad.” And you hear about how it’s such a shame and we really wish it didn’t have to be like this but he’ll work harder and come out of it better.

Except he won’t. Jabe O’Meester is 35. This is what he is, and what this is sucks. It’s sucked for years. He’s had multiple surgeries and the odometer is about to burst. He makes the Blues worse when he’s out there.

And yet the idea of sunk cost isn’t something that’s come to the NHL. You see it Edmonton with Milan Lucic. Or Calgary with Mike Smith. Hell, you could throw Brent Seabrook on this list, except the Hawks don’t have better options. This list could go on for a while.

The Blues probably have six better d-men than Bouwmeester. Kids like Vince Dunn and Jordan Schmaltz need to play if for no other reason so the Blues can see what they have. Carl Gunnarsson is at least more stable than J-Bow, and has been a better partner for Alex OrangeJello anyway.

The Blues have spent that money on Bouwmeester. It’s gone. They’re not getting it back. So why keep trying to justify it by crowbarring him into the lineup every night? Your fans know he blows. His teammates, though they’ll never say it, know it as well.

Is it the most glorious end to a fine career? No, it isn’t. But not everyone gets that, and certainly no one is owed that. It’s not like Bouwmeester is a Blues legend or anything. Getting paid $5M to watch hockey isn’t the worst job in the world. The Blues still have hopes to make something of this season. Which means putting their best players out there. That’s not Bouwmeester. Time they admit that, no matter what his bank balance is.

Hockey is defined on the margins. A couple of Bouwmeester shifts could honestly be the difference. Might it have been last year when the Blues missed out on a playoff spot by a point? You’d think they’d learn, but we know how St. Louis and learning go together.

Game #19 Preview Suite

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Game #19 – Blues vs. Hawks: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

By Sam Fels November 14, 2018 1244 0

Game #19 Preview Suite

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Game #19 – Blues vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels November 14, 2018 1281 0

Game #19 Preview Suite

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Game #11 – Hawks vs. Blues Preview: I Never Did Like It All That Much And One Day The Axe Just Fell

By Sam Fels October 27, 2018 1622 0

vs.

RECORDS: Hawks 6-2-2 Blues 2-4-3

PUCK DROP: 7pm

TV: WGN

MIKE MATHENY’S NEW PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: St. Louis Gametime

As you’ll have seen/will see in our Q&A with grade-school dropouts and Missouri state congressmen St. Louis Gametime, games against the Hawks tend to be watershed moments for Blues coaches. Not only is it how the fanbase defines their tenure, but they tend to signal the beginning/end of their time behind the Blues bench.

That appears to be the case against tonight, and Mike Yeo is basically having the black hood put over his head and the rope placed around his neck. All that’s left is for the players, yet again, to signal to the hangman to drop the floor. “This Time It Will Be Different” is coming off getting it shoved up them sideways by the Jackets at home on Thursday, where they gave up a touchdown and the PAT. They’ve got two wins on the season, and are rooted to the bottom of the Central. Their underlying numbers blow too, though I wouldn’t be convinced the Blues’ front office pays attention to that kind of thing, mostly because I’m not convinced the Blues’ front office can read. Gives them a nice symbiosis with the fanbase, you have to admit.

There are so many factors here contributing to the Blues state. One, it’s a wonky roster. They have some of the same problems the Hawks have. Their defense just isn’t that quick and isn’t that good, and that’s in a conference that moves toward hyper-speed more and more. Yeo’s directive was to play a more open, expressive, and faster style than Hitchcock, but that’s hard do when the defense isn’t really built for it. What the Blues don’t have is a world-class goaltender to bail them out nor as much top line scoring as they need to counteract their defense. Especially with Vladimir Tarasenko off to something of a slow start (and his -7 is a touch unsightly after nine games).

Whatever their give-a-shit levels or their desire to get yet another coach turfed, the biggest problems remain in net. Overall, the Blues are getting a .895 SV% at evens. You’re not going anywhere with that. They could have cracking analytic numbers and still be bottoming out because their goalies can’t get in front of a manatee in the sand. This seems to be a problem they want to have, because they keep foisting Jay Gallon the team like your grandmother and her coworker’s child because you’re not getting any younger! (Just me?) There are only three teams that have given up more goals than the Blues.

So tonight seems to be a nexus for the Blues. Either they’ll show some actual professional pride against a team that they still consider their biggest rival, realize it’s still quite early, and they could turn things around with a feel-good win. Or they’ve completely checked out, as seems to be their way, stand aside and watch it crumble so they can get another solution and the Hawks will gleefully drive the final nail in Mike Yeo’s coffin and the Blues will once again be trying to change course. It was ever thus.

Things are much smoother on the SS Westside Hockey Club. They’ve won three of four, are coming off two confidence-building wins against hanging curveballs Anaheim and the Rangers. There have been signs of life from Brandon Saad, there might be an actual third line with Alex Fortin, SuckBag Johnson, and Nick Schmaltz, even if it doesn’t make any sense. Erik Gustafsson and Brent Seabrook have been pretty good when not under serious duress. Corey Crawford looks like Corey Crawford, which of course is the biggest thing.

So it could be quite the atmosphere in Whatever-The-Fuck-It-Is-Now Center. The natives got awfully restless in that loss to the Jackets on Thursday. They’re already aching for change. And it’s a Saturday night against the Hawks, which we know they get just about as gassed up for as the ol’ Family Pit Fight out back to decide who will get Brutus The Mule this year. An early Hawks lead could turn it pretty poisonous. Or the Blues will come out flying in response to being embarrassed (if they’re capable of such a thing anymore) on Thursday and it’ll be the normal bullshit the Hawks find down there. What it won’t be is boring, you can be sure of that.

Again, this is a pretty soft part of the schedule. The unimpressive Oilers await tomorrow, and then a jaunt to Western Canada and its various wayward children on the road. It’s really not until around Thanksgiving that the Hawks face what you’d call a “gauntlet,” and with the way the rest of this division looks you need to grab every point while you can when you can. Ruthlessness is vital, and putting Mike Yeo out of his misery is part of that.

Game #11 Preview Suite

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Game #11 – Hawks vs. Blues Spotlight: Dead Yeo Walking

By Sam Fels October 27, 2018 1643 0

In some ways, it was never going to work out for Mike Yeo in St. Louis. One, the guy who replaced him Minnesota, Bruce Boudreau, has gotten better regular season results with basically the same roster that Yeo had. That always colors a view of a coach.

Second, and more importantly, the whole “succession” plan with Ken Hitchock was doomed from the start. When you tell a team that their head coach’s replacement is standing right next to him on the bench every night, you can’t be surprised when they’re not totally invested in what the coach is selling. Especially when it’s the Blues and were aching for an excuse to quit on Hitch yet again. But by then that lack of give-a-shit and bad habits are already entrenched. You don’t get the bounce of a fresh voice when they’ve been listening to that voice already and it was the one they knew was coming anyway. There isn’t a surprise or a lift on a new atmosphere at work.

Third, Yeo has been saddled with Jake Allen, a slow roster in a league that’s speeding up rapidly, and a lack of scoring depth. His charge was to play a style that was a little more free than what Hitch was running that killed everyone’s soul. Except the Blues haven’t really had the horses, especially with Robby Fabbri‘s (or Fabby Robbri’s) and Jaden Schwartz‘s injury problems. The acquisitions of Tyler Bozak and Ryan O’Reilly was meant to address this, except Bozak apparently showed up with his give-a-shit still in Toronto to stay.

Still, after all this time, Yeo has only coached one team to 100 points in a season. That was 2014-2015, which got the Wild a second-round sweep by the Hawks. And that was on the back of Devan Dubnyk suddenly becoming a firebreather. It’s not a very impressive record at all, even if his teams consistently have finished around 95 points…that is before they quit on him. Yeo maxed out what he had in Minnesota, and he did it by trying everything. He was the players’ coach. He was the hard-ass. They pressed and harried up the ice. Sometimes they trapped. It seemed at the time like Yeo was trying to keep opponents guessing. Now it seems like he was just trying everything until something clicked.

Until the Wild realized he had played every card, and waited him out. Based on the Blues giving up a touchdown to the Jackets at home on Thursday, the Blues don’t seem to be too far behind. Whenever the axe comes down on Yeo, it’ll probably be due to decisions that came too late. Jay Bouwmeester hasn’t been a top-four d-man in three years at least. Only this year has he been relegated to the third pairing. Vince Dunn is finally getting a look with Alex Pietrangelo. Carter Hutton was clearly playing better than Allen last year. He got two starts in the season’s final month as the Blues tumbled out of the playoff spots.

That was combined with things out of Yeo’s control. First off, the directive to play Allen might have come from above, because they forced him on Hitchcock as well. They traded Paul Stastny out from under him at the deadline. Alex Steen got old in a hurry, and players like Patrik Berglund and Vlad Sobotka had flattered to deceive for years before last year. Yeo wasn’t the first nor will he be the last to not get that much out of them.

Once again, Yeo has been trying everything, which signifies a lack of answers and desperation than a confidence in one’s decisions and lineups that stability would. Bouwmeester has swung from healthy scratch to third pairing to top pairing in the span of a week. Vinnie Dunn has done the same. Edmundson has played on all pairings. Lines have been shuffled with the kids in and out every night.

And this is still mostly the same roster that torpedoed Hitchcock. At some point, it can’t be the coach anymore. Maybe someone can come in and get this team to play at a pace to match Winnipeg and Nashville and Colorado. It’s at least what the Hawks and Stars are attempting. There isn’t that much time. While the Blues do boast some kids they like, Tarasenko, Schwartz, O’Reilly, and Schenn are in their primes right now. Pietrangelo is 29. There are some years left, but not that many.

Yeo seems like the kind of coach to max out a team that’s looking to scrape into the playoffs with limited talent. Maybe the first coach in a rebuild. But the Blues signaled with their trade for Ryan O’Reilly and signing of Bozak that they were after more.

Then again, firing Yeo seems to have worked out ok for the Wild. Maybe it’s the key log the Blues have been looking for their entire existence.

Game #11 Preview Suite

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Game #11 – Hawks vs. Blues Q&A: How Can We Miss You If You Never Leave?

By Sam Fels October 27, 2018 1554 0

Believe us, we’re even more sick of them than you are. But with Hawks-Blues games being crammed into the first month, we have to put up with @StLouisGametime together. Just close your eyes and think of a happier place, and soon it will be over.

When’s Mike Yeo getting fired? Is it tomorrow? It’s tomorrow, isn’t it?

Here’s a fun story. When Andy Murray took over for Mike Kitchen as head coach of the Blues, his first game behind the bench was against the Hawks. When Murray got replaced by Davis Payne, his first game was against the Hawks. When Payne was cut loose, Ken Hitchcock’s first game was against the Hawks. You remember Joel Quenneville used to be the Blues head coach, right? His last game with the Blues was a Hawks game. And here we are, Mike Yeo, embattled Blues head coach, piloting a quickly sinking ship and it’s a Hawks game. Too bad Craig Berube, the associate coach who has experience stepping in mid-season, wasn’t hired yesterday. So Yeo could follow in Q’s footsteps and make tonight his last game. When they beat Toronto a week ago, Yeo said after the game he didn’t know why his team played better. After Thursday’s blowout loss, he said something to the effect of the Blues focused a lot on the end goal for the Blues and not the process of becoming a team. That’s some mumbo jumbo bullshit that frankly sounds like an indictment of his own coaching. He’s tried to be nice. He’s tried to be mean. Nothing works. Maybe this is telling: when the axe finally falls and a new guy is in charge, Alexander Steen and Alex Pietrangelo will still be Blues. Petro was a young guy just coming in, but Steen was established when he came to St. Louis. The next guy will be their fifth head coaches in St. Louis (Murray, Payne, Hitchcock, Yeo, Berube). If Berube is only the interim and they name another permanent head coach, that would be six. These are two of the leaders of the team. Maybe they shouldn’t be.

When’s Jake Allen getting fired? Is it tomorrow? It’s tomorrow, isn’t it?

Jake Allen has to fucking love Mike Yeo. He probably offers him a discreet over the pants HJ on the team plane as a thank you. Because hardly anyone is talking about Jake Allen in St. Louis right now. In eight games this season, his goals-against average is 3.93. He’s pushed his career GAA to 2.53. If he tries hard enough (doesn’t try enough?), he could double his career average this season. Only one more goal a game. And I think he can do it. He’s stopped only 87.6 percent of the shots he’s seen this season. Those numbers would get most goaltenders put on waivers and then not claimed. Of course Allen is in the second year of a four-year deal paying him more than $4 million a year. It’s not Brent Seabrook bad, but even Cam Ward wonders how Allen got that contract. But like I said, no one is even mentioning Allen as an anchor pulling the Blues to the bottom of the ocean. So no, he’s not getting fired tomorrow. Even if he deserves it. He’s problem 1B on a list as long as my arm. And I have long arms.

Why is Vince Dunn terrible this year? Is he getting fired?

Vince Dunn is not terrible. You see, Brad Shaw was an assistant coach here forever. All those coaches I mentioned above, he outlasted almost all of him. He was in charge of the defensemen. Now he’s in Columbus. And Mike Van Ryn is the assistant in charge of the defensemen. I’m sure he has a system. If you named it, the moniker might be Chase The Other Team Around Like A Puppy Chases His Tail And Never Get The Puck Like The Puppy Never Gets His Goddamn Tail. Van Ryn has Jay Bouwmeester go from a healthy scratch for the first time in his career to basically leading the defensemen in minutes the next game to third-pairing to practicing yesterday back on the top pairing. When Yeo gets fired, if he doesn’t pack up Van Ryn with him, there may be a riot. And if there’s anything we know how to do in St. Louis, it’s riot.

Your Schmaltz is as big as ours….

Jordan Schmaltz is a find third-pairing defenseman. He’s not too fast or tough. He’s ok. He’s fine. Don’t get me started on the mistakes the other defensemen are making on a nightly basis. I haven’t screamed his name at the TV or at the game yet. That’s a positive sign. He was a first-round pick, but was one of the slowest in his draft class to sniff the NHL. He’s fine. Honest.

When are you getting fired? Is it tomorrow? It’s tomorrow, isn’t it?

This is my seventh season running the Game Time paper. Before that, I wrote for the previous editor/publisher, Gallagher, for seven seasons — six on the front page. So this is my 14^th season writing for GT. Our prospect guy is the only one who has written longer. During that time, the Blues have won four playoff series. All those coaches up above, I’ve written extensively about all of them from Kitchen on. I’m still here and all those guys are gone or will be gone soon. I’m the cockroach of St. Louis underground hockey writers. It’s going to take more than one shitty season to get rid of me. And if this wasn’t a well-disguised cry for help, I don’t know what is.

Game #11 Preview Suite

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Game #11 – Hawks vs. Blues Douchebag Du Jour: Another Night Of Fellating Ryan O’Reilly’s Faceoffs

By Sam Fels October 27, 2018 1482 0

One of the many problems with cramming in this many games with one opponent in such a short amount of time is that we already know the narratives that will be belched out during the broadcast. Along with Eddie Olczyk’s newfound passion for slamming analytics or possession-numbers (he seriously must not have got a job or something because he wouldn’t consider them and thus is going to make everyone pay now), and the long-standing fascination with hit-stats, apparently the new argle-bargle for Pat Foley and Eddie O is faceoffs.

And there’s no one they love to talk about more on that subject than Ryan O’Reilly.

Sure, ROR is third in the league again in faceoff-win percentage at 62.4%. That’s par for the course for O’Reilly, who consistently has been among the league’s best. What it hasn’t stopped is his possession numbers from being middling at best, considering how much he’s starting in the o-zone this season, or his team from being a big ball of suck.

It’s not that faceoffs don’t matter. They just don’t matter as much as everyone seems to want to believe.

Last year, ROR was second in the league in FOW%. The leader was Antoine Vermette, He spent most of the season getting his head kicked in while a Duck and is now out of the league. Claude Giroux, Jonathan Toews, and Patrice Bergeron were behind ROR, and we know they’re some of the best possession players in the league. It can go either way.

Team-wide, faceoffs matter even less. Two of the top five teams in faceoffs last year didn’t make the playoffs, and a third, Philly, didn’t really have any business there either. Three of the bottom five and four of the bottom six were playoff teams. You find these kinds of numbers no matter what season you look.

It’s not that faceoffs are completely irrelevant. There are a few draws within each every game that do matter, and they’re usually on special teams or toward the end of a game. But there are so many that they become rather meaningless if you study them all at once. They’re a pebble in a river.

But that won’t stop Foley and Eddie from championing ROR as the cure for cancer and/or complaining about the lack of draws that the Hawks win. Strangely, Anisimov doesn’t win draws and yet can’t seem to do wrong in their eyes, though. Some men you just can’t reach.

Game #11 Preview Suite

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Game #5 – Blues vs. Hawks Spotlight: That’s The Way You Go, The City Is So, So Cold

By Sam Fels October 13, 2018 1779 0

Let us just throw some numbers at you: .940, .946, .932, .911, .926, .923, .937, .922.

Those are the playoff save-percentages of the last eight Cup-winning goaltenders. The only outlier there is Jonathan Quick‘s 2014 run, which was buffeted by an offense that went Human Torch in the playoffs, thanks to Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, Justin Williams, and Marian Gaborik. So to get to a Cup, the buy-in for a goalie is just about .922.

Jake Allen‘s career playoff SV% is .922. So you might be a pleasant person, with inclinations of optimism (in which case, what are you doing here?), and say, “Well, that’s at the very bottom rung, but it’s at the table. The Blues could do it with this guy!” Well congratulations, you’re the Blues GM now.

Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see the problem. That .922 is buffeted by one series, in 2017 against the decidedly punchless Minnesota Wild. Allen threw a .956 at Minnesota over five games, winning that series pretty much by himself, and condemning Bruce Boudreau to another sweaty, Klondike-filled summer turning more read than he normally is.

But after that, when the Blues came up against an actual offense in Nashville, Allen was hurled back to Earth with impolite speed with a .909 over six games. Which aligns nicely with his .897 in 2016 as he and Brian Elliot played Hide The Pickle in the crease, or his .904 the year before as he hilariously threw up a kitten against that same Wild, including a real tour-da-fuck? in Game 6 of that series. Take away that one series, and Allen’s playoff SV% is .904.

Now let’s throw in the little nugget that Allen has exactly one regular season of a save-percentage over league-average. Would you, a rational human being with passable knowledge of how the game works, turn over your starting goalie job to him yet again?

Let’s pull back. Would you, a rational human being with a passable knowledge of how the game works, make the ultra-aggressive moves of signing Tyler Bozak to a free agent contract at age 32, and then give up a good deal of draft picks–signaling the future doesn’t mean much to you–to acquire Ryan O’Reilly, indicating you expect to not only make the playoffs this year but go far, and then turn the most important aspect over to Jake Allen?

No, you’re not crazy or masochistic or have fallen down the rabbit hole into Wonderland where you’re currently chasing around the Mad Hatter with a tire iron because seriously, fuck that guy.

And yet here we are with the Blues, once again. You may not think the additions of O’Reilly and Bozak puts them over the top. It probably doesn’t unless they get unexpected contributions from a few kids in the lineup. But you don’t make them thinking you’re just going to settle for third place and a first-round exit, either. Short of somehow convincing John Tavares that St. Louis was in Ontario (and feel free to take it, Ontario), this was about as much as the Blues could do to get in the ring with the Jets and Predators.

But what does it matter if the anchor is made of cardboard? Anyone think Allen is going to be able to stonewall either the Jets or Preds in the first round, the most likely opponents? The Blues would either have to win the division to avoid either to lead off the spring, or someone engineer a wild card spot that gets flipped over to the Pacific, where only San Jose or Vegas would probably be worrying. And you don’t commit yourself to $12.5 million worth of new centers to aim for a wild card spot.

Sure, the renovations to the rest of the house look great. Do they really matter if the foundation is causing the whole thing to lean to one side?

Game #5 Preview Suite

Everything Else

Game #5 – Blues vs. Hawks Q&A: Oh Dear God Brad Lee Got Loose

By Sam Fels October 13, 2018 1710 0

Hi, I’m Brad. I live in St. Louis. Much of my wardrobe is blue. I’m the captain of the USS Game Time, the fan-run paper we sell outside every Blues game. It’s a lot like what the Committed Indian was when Sam was more committed. Or before he got committed. I forget. For the record, in the very last issue of your deceased Hawks paper, I responded to one of these Q&As. It was for Game 6 of the 2016 first-round playoff series between the Blues and the Hawks. In that last issue, because the Blues eliminated the Blackhawks in Game 7, I predicted it would be the last issue. However, I thought it would just be the last issue of the season, not for forever. Someday I should use my powers for good.

This is the second time the Blues and Hawks have played in a week. Sam didn’t send new questions for me to answer. He said answer last week’s. But that’s so last week. I’ve written up some amazing questions, maybe the best questions ever asked on this website. Then I wrote some answers. Next time you attend a game in St. Louis and a guy who looks like Santa or a woman you think may be homeless because she has plastic grocery bags over her shoes to keep her feet warm waves a publication that says, “Blackhawks Suck,” (we only print the truth) please consider buying one. My three kids eat a lot.

Now, entertaining answers AND incredible questions from Brad of Game Time.

Q. The Blues finally have a win and a well-balanced record of 1-1-1. You mouth-breathers down I-55 plan the parade down Market Street yet? (Obvs, I’m doing some Sam cosplay here)

A. Expectations are a bitch. Hawks fans still have them for some reason. They shouldn’t. Sure, during the offseason Blues GM Doug Armstrong added some important players. If you compare the forward lines from tonight to a year ago, it’s an incredible change — on paper. On ice, it’s been a different story. The best example I have is from the Hawks game last Saturday. The Blues tried a stretch pass after a decent outlet out of their own zone. The players were a little out of step, so the timing didn’t work. They got another chance quickly, but they turned the puck over just inside the Chicago zone. A Blues player blew a tire and the Hawks went the other way on a two-on-one. Future Supreme Court Justice nominee Patrick Kane put a shot on net, the rebound came straight out and the resurrected corpse of Marcus Kruger put home an easy opportunity (feel free to call him Zombie Kruger from this point forward). They were two examples of plays where it seemed like familiarity made a difference. Spoiler Alert: I’m going to talk about Jake Allen farther down. The biggest concern might be the defense. Let’s ask a question about that.

Q. Hey handsome Brad, your beard looks well-manicured. Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson also has a beard. He was hurt to start the season along with Carl Gunnarsson. That led to guys named Chris Butler and Niko Mikkola being on the roster on defense opening night last week. Jay Bouwmeester is still an NHL player? What the hell are they doing with the defense in St. Louis?

A. In the week it took the Blues to get their first win, the chicken or the egg conversation went like this: Allen is playing crap in goal and making the defense look bad. Or, the defense looks like traffic cones on the Dan Ryan and it’s making Allen look bad. How about they all started the season sucking? Second year guy Vince Dunn was a healthy scratch Thursday. They tried playing Jakub Jerabek on the third pairing. He was a -3 in less than 8 minutes of ice time. He was a castoff Oilers defenseman they got for a late-round pick right before the season started. Playing him smells like the stench of desperation or the visiting Wrigley clubhouse after two teams poured champagne on each other in 24 hours not long ago. Here’s what you need to watch: Edmundson, who got a goal in his return to the lineup, playing not quite Duncan Keith minutes with Alex Pietrangelo, every Bouwmeester mistake creating a scoring chance for the Hawks, a hopefully resurgent Colton Parayko — who arguably has the biggest shot for St. Louis but is reticent (sorry for the big words, Hawks fans; reluctant) to let it loose, a hopefully dressed Dunn and big and slow and low hockey IQ guy Bob Bortuzzo. On paper, again, it’s a decent unit. Subtracting Bouwmeester would be nice (last year of contract, hip surgery last season). Bortuzzo controlling his stick and elbows would be a nice change of pace. Seeing Pietrangelo focus more on his end would be even better.

Q. Does Jake Allen forget to take his ADD meds before most starts?

A. Blues fans either love Allen or they hate him. There’s no in between — kind of like his level of play. Fundamentally, he does a poor job squaring to the shooter and being in a solid position. The result is lots of movement laterally and some spectacular saves. Because he doesn’t prepare properly, he has torecover and use his athleticism. Fans see amazing saves and give him credit while others see he played himself into the position of having to make the spectacular move. Watch how often opponents shoot short side or take quick shots directly off the faceoff. It’s because he has a poor setup, poor preparation. Are there nights he does a better job? Absolutely. But take Thursday for example. The Blues had a 5-1 lead. The game ended 5-3. Allen stopped 91.2 percent of the shots he faced. That’s pretty average. In fact, it’s also his career save percentage. He’s definitely better than Cam “Don’t Forget I Won That Cup Years Ago” Ward. The backup is Chad Johnson. He hasn’t played in a game yet, but probably will take the ice tonight or at home Sunday in St. Louis against the Ducks. My favorite goaltender is in San Antonio, Ville Husso. The future is always better, right? Just like the future years on that Brent Seabrook contract. Alllllllof those future years.

Q. Mike Yeo probably sucks. Do you realize this or has the Budweiser made in your town killed enough brain cells so that you don’t know it yet?

A. Mike Yeo is not an especially creative man. Mike Yeo is not what you would call an inspirational leader. Mike Yeo’s teams consistently finish fourth in the division — fifth last year. He doesn’t have a good track record with cultivating young players. His teams don’t play especially well on the power play. He’s trying something new this season by playing guys who actually have skill on the fourth line, including the center you’re going to hate in the future, Robert Thomas. He might not ruin young speedster Jordan Kyrou. Chris Thorburn hasn’t suited for a game (YET). However, if the Blues struggle to string some wins together the first half of the season, it’s important to remember that Mike Yeo has one year left on his contract after this season. Also, Craig Berube, who has experience stepping in mid-season as an NHL head coach, is behind the bench as the associate head coach. I’m not saying the coaching career of Mike Yeo in St. Louis is on life support, but I think I got a notification Yeo recently updated his LinkedIn profile. And if Yeo starts coaching to avoid getting fired, he’ll only get fired.

Q. Who is the one guy on the Blues who is most valuable to the team so one of the unskilled Hawks players (too many to mention!) can sweep the leg and send him to injured reserve?

A. Well the defense looked like an over-baked tomato casserole you Chicagoans call pizza — thick, gooey and liable to cause a heart attack — without Edmundson, but the easy answer here is Jaden Schwartz. The undersized dynamo is every hockey fan’s wet dream. He’s fearless, hard to push off the puck and maybe the smartest hockey player on the roster. His next bad decision with the puck will be the first I remember. When he broke his ankle in Detroit last December, the Blues fell from the top of the conference to out of playoff position. Hating the Red Wings, something Chicago and St. Louis fans can unite around. Anyway, don’t put your grubby paws on him.

Q. Thanks for doing this, Brad. Writing the questions and giving the answers too? I’m paying you double. Last question: I saw on Twitter that some Hawks fans bought your paper last weekend in St. Louis. I’m sure they hated it, but does that make Game Time the best fan-run paper in the NHL?

A. Yes. But it’s important to mention that it’s the only one.

Game #5 Preview Suite