St. Louis Blues: Jake Allen Is Better Than Curtis Joseph
By Todd Panula
Here we go again. The never ending droning of the masses when it comes to how horrible the St. Louis Blues goaltenders are. It is beginning to reach a critical mass when it comes to Jake Allen.
The St. Louis Blues have a problem in goal. The problem is the fans perception of the position more than the actual people in goal though.
Now, before people light their torches and try to hunt me down they need to realize the title is more a way to show how any point can be proven if we want to. That does not always make it 100% true.
Is Jake Allen actually better than Curtis Joseph? Probably not. Through the same points in their careers though, the argument is a lot closer than many Blues fans would ever care to acknowledge because the Snake has become enemy number one.
This is nothing new. Goaltenders always take the brunt of the hatred from fans because fans don’t understand the position – most fans I should say.
I’m one of those people that says most times a fan can have whatever opinion they want whether they played the game or not. If you have watched enough sports, you know what is good and bad in most cases. When it comes to goaltending, that idea gets flipped completely around.
As a goaltender myself, whether it be hockey or soccer, I feel people take too simplistic of an approach to the position. You see a highlight of some other goaltender making a save and then apply that one play to every play your own goaltender must make.
Don’t get beat on the near post. You have to control every rebound. A player should never score if the goaltender has nobody screening their vision. Those are just some of the cliche nonsense people actually believe about goaltenders.
Play the position. Try it out for awhile and see how difficult it actually is regardless of pad size, goal size, shot distance from the target, etc.
You have so many things to read and react to, it would make the mind of the average person spin. That’s not to mention you have an object being hurled at you at high velocity and sometimes the shooters don’t even know where it is going.
No doubt there are people who actually have played the position that still don’t like Allen or some of his predecessors. That is fine. I’m not advocating anyone to think Allen is the team’s savior, but more context instead of flying off the handle would be nice.
Let’s jump into the numbers game. Allen is currently 26 and started when he was 22, so let’s compare him with Joseph over that same stretch.
Cujo had a .908 save percentage over those years. Allen is obviously in the middle of this season, but his save percentage currently sits at .912 for that same time frame.
Joseph had an average of 3.12 in goals against over that time period. Allen is at 2.43 and has never had a season even remotely close to three. Joseph never got his goals against under three until his final season with the Blues.
That all means Allen is superior right? The numbers prove it. That does not fit the narrative though, so the excuses come out.
Joseph played in a different era. His defense was not as good. The list goes on.
There are some truths in there. The NHL was different back then and the defense was not as good at shot blocking. So, Cujo got shelled and led the league in shots against a couple times.
That said, you were also allowed to clear people from the front of the net more. You were allowed to hook and grab more to slow down the star forwards. I shudder to think what goaltender numbers might have been like back then if the game was called as tightly as it is now.
The point is, many have idolized Joseph as the Blues’ best and he had some pretty terrible numbers. There were years, and not just with the Blues, his save percentage was under .900.
Yet, when we watched him, we knew he was a good goaltender (until the playoffs anyway). The opposite is true of Allen.
People watch him and assume he’s bad. He can make awesome saves and keep the team in the game when they are giving him no help and deflecting pucks past him. All people see are those soft goals though.
Watch some games as a neutral. I say that with no tone or sarcasm or any idea of thinking I know more than anyone else. When you watch games you are not invested in more often though, you will see how much it happens to others.
We get so wrapped up in what is happening with the Blues that we assume everything is so much better somewhere else. That is not always the case.
Numbers aren’t everything. Most of us know that Allen is not currently better than what we know Joseph became, but the number say otherwise.
Guys like Anders Nilsson, Thomas Greiss and Peter Budaj have better numbers than Allen. Buffalo and the Islanders are terrible and you had better be joking if you would rather have Budaj than Allen.
Also, goaltending is such a subjective thing. Everyone in St. Louis clamors for a superstar goaltender.
gets hammered in New York once in awhile.
is often on the outs with Bruins fans. I remember stories of people crying that the Canadiens kept
instead of
. That alone shows you people are not the most sensible when it comes to that position.
Speaking of Price, his numbers and Allen’s are not at all dissimilar. Again, over the same period of their careers, Price is at .918 and 2.49 when the Snake is at .912 and 2.43.
As mentioned, Canadiens fans were more than willing to let Price go because he was not living up to their “lofty” expectations. Now they have one of, if not the best goaltender in the league.
That’s not to say Allen will morph into that. Projecting goaltender talent might be more difficult than figuring out if a quarterback can transition from college to the NFL.
Allen is having a poor year. He’s not playing up to his capabilities for sure.
His goals allowed percentage is 14 points higher than average. He’s only been below the average in that category once (last season).
He has seven really bad starts as quantified by metrics, which is a career high. Allen must be better.
The book is out on him people say. Shoot high glove and you’ll score. That’s true of 75% of goaltenders in the league.
You want to know what else the book is out on? The Blues defense and powerplay.
Attack our defense with speed and they can’t handle it and take penalties. Pressure every puck movement of the Blues’ powerplay and they cannot enter the zone or sustain pressure.
We should have kept Brian Elliott some still whine. Elliott is currently 8-10-1 with numbers of .889 and 2.95. Before anyone attributes it to Calgary, Chad Johnson (a nobody prior to this year) is 15-9-1 with a .923 and 2.26 halfway through the season. Elliott also had to win six in a row to get to those eight wins.
Make a trade for a goaltender is always the answer for others. I have two words for that. Ryan Miller.
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Miller was an elite goaltender, or at least top tier, and the expectations lumped on him combined with the team’s poor defending crushed him in this town. Also, nobody in a position to trade has a goaltender we want.
Tampa Bay is not sending us Ben Bishop and we could not afford him. Despite his stats, Blues fans would crush him too because, like every goaltender, he lets in the occasional goal that isn’t the best.
Cam Ward and Roberto Luongo are too old for a deal to make sense. You’re not getting Devan Dubnyk, Braden Holtby or Rask. Best case scenario, you acquire Jimmy Howard. Howard is up and down as well and seems injury prone over the last few seasons.
The bottom line is Allen is our goaltender. There is nothing going to change that this season.
If you don’t want to like him, go ahead. But as bad as he has been this year, he has had no help or luck. You put any goaltender in those same situations and the Blues don’t gain more than a couple wins.
Next: A Goaltender Deal May Be Needed, But Who
Allen must be better. There is no arguing that. Only picking on the goaltender is just lazy thinking though.
The Blues defense must be better as well. They limit shots but also turn the puck over or get caught out of position in such key situations that no goaltender can cope entirely.
This entire team must be better, top to bottom. Allen is going through a tough stretch. Nobody, well nobody sane, said we should trade Vladimir Tarasenko when he struggled in the playoffs though.