St. Louis Blues Bring In Extra Pair Of Eyes To Start Practice
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues are proving they are willing to do whatever and talk to whomever it takes in an attempt to win. With that in mind, they have temporarily added to their coaching staff to begin camp.
The St. Louis Blues spent the offseason making some really interesting hires to their coaching staff. Each one was brought in for a specific purpose and will likely help this team quite a bit if all goes to plan.
The Blues brought in Craig Berube somewhat late in the process. That was mainly to give him the chance to get a head coaching job though since he had done so well as head coach of the Blues minor league affiliate in 2016-17.
The Blues added Darryl Sydor in a slightly surprising move. However, given time to reflect, the hire might be a stroke of genius. Sydor was an offensive defenseman before it was in style and should help the Blues powerplay since the blue liners struggle to shoot it.
I’m not going to sit here and say the hiring of Steve Ott was a master stroke. It does provide the team with leadership, since many had played with Ott before, and a guy they would be comfortable going to with issues you don’t go straight to Mike Yeo with.
So, with all those guys in place, why would you look outside the organization for help? Do the Blues not feel comfortable with their new coaching staff? Far from it. Still, extra eyes as the team comes together in drills and practice is never a bad thing.
With that in mind, according to the Post-Dispatch, the team has brought in Dave Tippett to lend a hand at the start of camp. While I’m sure Tippett will be compensated for his time, he is not being added to the staff. Nobody needs to look over their shoulder or worry about their job. The Blues are simply getting an extra opinion.
This is somewhat newer to the game of hockey. It is done quite often in baseball though.
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Usually it is former players, but there are all sorts of guys in spring training that are not on the coaching staff. Ozzie Smith, the Cardinals former shortstop, has become a regular in those late winter/early spring practices.
The Blues are utilizing the same idea. They simply looked outside the organization for help.
Tippett is no stranger to the Blues though. He’s coached in the same conference as St. Louis his entire career.
He started off as an assistant under former Blues coach Andy Murray when Murray was with Los Angeles. Tippett then became the head coach of Dallas and Arizona.
Tippett is familiar with Mike Yeo as well. He was Yeo’s head coach with the Houston Aeros before injury ended Yeo’s playing career.
Tippett’s coaching record is not stellar, but he knows his stuff. He led the Stars to back-to-back 50 win seasons and led both the Stars and Coyotes to conference finals appearances. It was only those last few years in Arizona that brought his record closer to the .500 mark.
The reality is Tippett is not going to have a huge mark on this team. Yeo has his own philosophies and style he wants to implement.
However, you can’t figure that Tippett has not had influence on Yeo since he coached him. With that in mind, why not go to the source for a little help?
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Tippett is simply going to help out with drills and give some feedback to the Blues actual staff. It helps everybody out really.
The Blues get some extra instruction from a very talented hockey mind. Tippett gets to stay close to the game while he waits for that next call from somewhere.
As I said, it’s not Earth shattering news. This is not an actual addition to the staff. It cannot hurt though, and if it helps, the Blues will be much better for it.