St. Louis Blues: Why The Jake Allen Narrative Makes No Sense

One of the more popular pastimes of St. Louis Blues fans is to rip on the goaltenders. More often than not, the fans are in the wrong because their logic makes little sense.

There is an old saying that basically says not to ruin a good story with the truth. That is basically the words so many St. Louis Blues fans live by when it comes to the tale of the team’s goaltending.

Throughout the years, the fans have had a love/hate relationship with the Blues goaltenders. Most of that is understandable.

Outside of a few select names, such as Plante, Hall, Joseph or Fuhr, the Blues have lacked quality or consistency in net. That is not to say all of the other players were horrible – far from it – but, there has not been that star that could carry the team past its own shortcomings as others have for other teams.

Guys like Roman Turek come to mind. Turek had some great regular seasons, including a Presidents Trophy year, but was also a big reason the Blues got swept by San Jose that same year.

Despite this, fans have become too accustomed to saying that every goaltender that has the team’s favor is garbage and every one that is waiting in the wings is the best thing since sliced bread. This has become more and more apparent in recent years, given the abundance of sharing going on with the crease.

However, the narrative that all the starters have sucked in recent years – Jake Allen in particular – and the backups were so glorious is not as clear cut as many would have you believe. In fact, many fans pick and choose what supports their argument and ignore the rest.

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Since the main focus has been on Allen in recent years, let us start there. We will also discuss the most recent craze to hit Blues fandom during the offseason of 2018, which was Carey Price fever. Not since Bieber-fever has there been such a divide.

The prevailing thought was that the Blues had to upgrade their goaltending since Allen had some shaky months in two consecutive winters. Somewhere along the line the Blues and Montreal Canadiens got linked together in rumors and fans stoked those flames into a bonfire.

Despite the public outcry for a savior in the name of Price, people overlook any sort of negative surrounding Price himself. While Price’s highs have been better than Allen’s, his lows have been equal or worse.

Allen’s current worst season had a .906 save percentage and a 2.75 goals against. Oddly enough, that came in 2017-18, which seemed to draw less hatred than 2016-17, when Allen’s numbers were actually better.

Conversely, fans were foaming at the mouth to acquire Price. Forgetting the unholy contract he currently has, fans are also conveniently not looking at the fact that Price is coming off his worst statistical season of his career.

In 2017-18, he had a 3.11 goals against and a save percentage of .900. His goals saved above average was worse than Allen’s and his quality starts were worse too.

Ah, but it is because his team was not good they will say. However, if you try and point out the lack of offensive support and the ratio of shots to quality chances given up by Blues defenders, you’re talking nonsense and are simply an Allen apologist.

People still cry out that Allen is terrible. Today, on Facebook, I literally saw a fan say it was awful that a little girl dressed in goalie gear looked up to Allen, since he’s so terrible. Heaven forbid anyone have a differing opinion. I digress.

One of the other things fans keep hammering at is this simple idea that Allen cannot win. This overlooks that his career numbers are on the same trajectory as Corey Crawford.

We can argue about how good or bad that is, but Crawford has two Stanley Cups. I would argue he was not the main reason his team won either of those, but he stepped up when needed. There is no reason Allen cannot do the same if the team in front of him plays as well.

Allen’s numbers are actually better in some cases than Crawford’s through their fifth season. Allen has a better save percentage, faced more shots, made more saves and goals against are roughly the same (2.75 to 2.72).

None of this is to say Allen is infallible. He has proven himself to be a headcase, switching masks and pads at random and openly demonstrating body language that gives away his mood.

He does have to find a way to avoid the mid-season swoons that have plagued him the past two seasons. Allen does need to be the reason the team wins more often.

However, the narrative seems to be that the team only loses because of him and only wins in spite of him. I said it all of 2017-18 and before. You could plug the greatest goalies of all time in the same net and they would not make the difference so many think due to how the team was performing.

Allen does need to keep improving, but fans have to change their mentality as well. There are literally fans out there that would find fault with whatever higher power you believe in, should they be in the Blues net.

Allen is not nearly as bad as so many think. The people that so many fans think would be an improvement are not as fantastic as they believe.

Fans have such short memories. Curtis Joseph is one of the greats among Blues netminders, but had a knack for choking in the playoffs – something he continued with Detroit. Nobody remembers that, however, since it does not fit their narrative.

The opposite is true for Allen. All the naysayers talk about is the negative moments, but they forget that Allen almost single-handedly defeated Minnesota in the 2016-17 playoffs.

Fans that drool over Price also have short memories. The narrative has switched now to how terrible Jaroslav Halak is/was, but we forget that the Canadiens were very close to trading Price instead. In fact, Montreal fans were fuming, at the time, that the team dealt Halak instead of Price.

When you boil it all away, if you don’t like Allen, that is your deal. However, most won’t admit that it is their own opinion on him, pushing their opinion as fact.

I fully admit that my opinion is that Allen is good and that does shade my arguments. Despite this, I can look at the numbers objectively and say that the differences between the perceived elite and the perceived trash are not as great as anyone thinks. In several cases, the numbers support the other side than the detractors.

Regardless of all that, in a perfect world, fans would just get on board with the idea that Allen is going to be the starter. If you don’t like him, fine, but there are so many that hope he does poorly, which in turn affects the team. Allen being successful makes the team successful.

Think what you will of him, but there is no empirical evidence to say he cannot win. I will keep throwing myself on this sword, if necessary, but I will continue to think that Allen is more than capable of winning a Cup if the team in front of him is capable of winning one.