St. Louis Blues Currently Sitting In Goaltending No Man’s Land
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues have quite the issue when it comes to their goaltenders. It isn’t necessarily the problem most people believe and the solution isn’t exactly the one many suggest.
The St. Louis Blues have plenty of issues in net right now, that’s for sure. Even the most ardent supporters of the position and those playing the spot have to admit that the Blues are not getting the quality of goaltending they need right now.
That is not to say it is the only problem. Far from it. However, the guys playing in net at this moment are not being part of the solution either.
Goaltending is always the easiest to blame. It’s hard to discern whether someone actually knows something about the position and seeing something wrong or just falling back on the time tested principle of blaming the goalie first and always.
It’s lazy thinking, to be honest. There are plenty of things that could have gone differently before a goal is scored, but people always remember what they see last. So, it had to be the fault of the guy in net because he did not stop it.
That just is not always the case. It certainly has not been the case the entirety of this season.
The defenders constantly back in. There have been countless pucks deflected by Blues players past their own goaltenders.
St. Louis gives up breakaways and odd-man rushes when they are on the powerplay. They do more screening of their own teammate than they do on opposing goaltenders.
None of that is an excuse though. The men suiting up in the pads have not done their job well enough. This is part of the problem.
The Blues are in a no man’s land. They can’t look forward with continuing problems, but the team problems make it impossible for changes to be made and be effective as well.
It starts with Jake Allen. Call me crazy, but I still believe Allen can be a great goaltender.
That is not to say he will be one of the greats. You’ll likely never hear his name mentioned with Roy, Brodeur, Hall or Dryden. That does not mean he cannot be one of the better ones to ever wear the Note.
Allen is still young. He is only 26 right now. A goaltender’s prime is often in their late 20’s and early 30’s.
This is his first time being thrust into the spotlight. We are slightly over the halfway mark of the season and he is only 13 games from tying his career high in games played.
Not everyone hits the ground running. By the time he was 26, Carey Price had two sub .500 seasons. He also did not consistently keep his goals against average in the low twos until he turned 27.
That means Allen should not be held to his current numbers. He can rebound and he can get better.
The issue for this season is how long can the Blues sit and hope he will magically flip the switch. Goaltending is perhaps the most mental position in all sports and Allen has a mental block the size of a city block right now.
Any bad thing rattles him and he overextends in an attempt to counteract it. That’s disappointing because when he first came into the league, one of the admirable things about him was his even temper. Nothing seemed to rattle him and he just went about his business.
During this bad run of form, everything seems to rattle him. It has gotten to the point where you wonder what the team can do.
They can’t just keep throwing him out there and hoping. The team is struggling as it is and if they have an extra worry, they can’t function themselves.
You can’t just let him sit at home forever either. The Blues are currently leaving Allen in St. Louis for their current three game road trip. Maybe it will clear his head, but goaltenders need to play to keep sharp.
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The other issue is Carter Hutton is not the answer. He’s a fine backup and has filled in for long stretches with Nashville before.
Hutton has not exactly covered himself in glory this season though. He’s bailed out the Blues a couple times, but his save percentage is worse than Allen’s and his goals against is paper-thin marginally better.
Hutton played well enough for the Blues to get on a two game roll their last road trip. Maybe he and the team find some magic again.
That isn’t the long term answer though. What is?
Looking Forward
As the title says, the Blues are stuck in no man’s land. They can’t trust their starter, their backup is not a long term solution and the team isn’t playing well enough to make a change.
People can whine and complain all they like about making a deal for a goaltender. We already tried that with Ryan Miller and it ended rather disastrously.
The exact same result happens if you try it again this time. The Blues defending is just north of horrendous, so putting anyone in the net short of Jesus himself will likely not yield much better results.
On social media, people keep pointing out the Blues are giving up fewer shots this season. That stat is useless when the chances given up are shots that are hard not to score on.
It doesn’t matter if you only allow 10 shots a game. If 8 of those are from the slot or prime scoring areas, you are not doing your job. Conversely, even when the Blues outshoot teams, they are getting weak shots from the point or bad angles that aren’t likely to go in, so the numbers don’t matter as much either.
The Blues are going to give Pheonix Copley a whirl at the NHL level again. I can’t say it is a terrible idea.
Maybe that will shake some of the on-ice players a little bit. Perhaps it will plant the seed that they aren’t supporting their goaltenders enough and the team is desperate enough to bring up an AHL guy.
However, even before they announced Copley’s recall, I wondered how much that might affect anything. Copley and Ville Husso have been playing lights out for the Chicago Wolves. Do you really want to destroy their confidence playing them with a defense that is leaking goals like a sieve?
All it takes is one bad game to ruin a player. It might be apples to oranges, but Rick Ankiel is a good example of that. One game essentially ended his pitching career.
The Blues are to the point where they can’t be concerned with that though. They have to get points and if that means signing a sumo wrestler and strapping pads to him to keep pucks out, they have to do it.
Though I don’t agree with the actions in principle, I feel the team is taking the correct course of action. Allen needs a break.
Maybe sitting at home for a week and working with Jim Corsi will do some good. Maybe being left home will piss him off and snap him out of it. Who knows what he needs. Every player is different.
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Right now, the best case scenario is Hutton plays well enough to get a couple W’s on this trip. Maybe Copley even gets a game and the Blues play some good defense for him to get him started off right.
The team’s recent track record suggests none of that will happen. No matter who the Blues have in net, they have plenty of issues to resolve.
Facing some of the league’s best scorers is not what the doctor ordered either. Hopefully they can play up to their competition because outside help is not going to be a cure-all for this team even if it would be an improvement on paper.