St. Louis Blues Mike Yeo Could Be On Borrowed Time

The St. Louis Blues have too many problems to count in their slow start to 2018-19. However, whether it is fair or not, there might be only one problem that has a solution.

Under Mike Yeo, the St. Louis Blues have really only known one thing for sure. That is that you never know what you are going to get.

The team started off like a house on fire when Yeo initially took over after Ken Hitchcock’s midseason firing. Yeo led the team to a solid finish, a first round playoff win and a lot of hope for future seasons.

Unfortunately, that hope has come crashing down to Earth. While not every single problem the Blues currently have is attributable to Yeo, his record and the team’s performance have definitely gone south since he took over full time.

As you can see from the table, when the team first had Yeo in charge, they were playing what we like to think of as Blues hockey. The goal totals were not gaudy, but the team scored enough and was incredibly adept at keeping them out. Fans don’t like the idea of two goals against per game, but that’s around average for today’s NHL.

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From then on, it has been a little more rough. Everything has steadily gone down in each 40 game section including goals, points, record and goals against keeps going up.

You cannot blame everything on coaching. Even the biggest Jake Allen supporter has to admit that he was not that good in certain sections of the past season. While coaches come up with offensive schemes and certain plays for special teams, it still boils down to the players actually going out there and performing up to the standards their talent demands.

If Vladimir Tarasenko or Ryan O’Reilly is not scoring, how much can we really expect Yeo to do about that? You can yell and scream and plot all you want, but they have to go out and get it done.

The same is true, in the overall sense, for the defensive problems. Coaches give you the game plan and style, but you have to actually go out there and defend. You have to put your body on a man, knock him off the puck and be stronger. That’s just not happening right now.

However, you cannot fire 20-plus players. Even in the offseason, you can only get rid of so many guys and the Blues already did a lot of that by bringing in a slew of new faces and jettisoning some old ones.

So, the coaching is the only change left to be made. Doug Armstrong was probably not expecting to even have to think about it at this point though.

The problem Armstrong faces is that Yeo was handpicked by him. Armstrong could have waited, interviewed all the possible candidates that would have been available in the offseason and gone from there. Instead, Armstrong brought in Yeo to be the assistant under Hitchcock for a year and then take over.

That decision benefitted him during that year since the team parted ways with Hitch. It might not make things so easy this time around.

Armstrong knows he has a little bit of a leash since he just signed a new contract extension, but time is running out on all currently involved with the team. The Blues have slowly regressed each season following their run to the Western Conference Finals, instead of taking the next steps.

Additionally, though I believe coaching can only impact certain things, it does not seem to be impacting anything at the moment. The team seems underprepared and unmotivated. Those are things the coaches should have a direct influence over.

Making matters worse for Yeo were some offhanded comments he made during one postseason. I could not find the direct quote, but Yeo basically said that you cannot force players into doing things that make them uncomfortable. While that is not completely false, that is basically the job of a coach or trainer or anyone in charge of things. To make people better, you have to ask and sometimes demand more of them than they are openly willing to give.

Not everyone is a Michael Jordan where they have the work ethic ingrained in them and the talent to match. Sometimes, you have to demand more from someone than they think they can give and they are better for it.

Humans are almost designed to find the path of least resistance. To think someone will automatically give exactly what is needed and more is foolhardy.

If that is continually how Yeo is thinking, then perhaps he does have to go. The Blues have some good talent at his disposal right now and you can only push the chemistry button so many times before it is worn out.

There is also precedence for such a quick hook with the Blues and with Armstrong. Davis Payne got the axe quite early when Hitchcock took over, but that was a slightly different situation, so it is hard to say how this will all play out.

As someone who has lost their job, I cannot fully join the fans that froth at the mouth for people to lose their livelihood. Nevertheless, unless there is a rather quick turnaround, Mike Yeo might be counting his days with the Blues.