5 Reasons St. Louis Blues Should Hire Joel Quenneville; 1 They Won’t
The St. Louis Blues have a unique situation with their current coaching position. The team is not quite bad enough to demand a change, but there is a rare chance to be immediately better if there was a change.
The St. Louis Blues have some interesting days ahead of them. As they flounder at the beginning of the 2018-19 season, their ownership an management have to decide what the best course is for this current team
After a flurry of activity in the summer, expectations for this group of Blues were sky high. They came crashing down to earth with a tepid start to the season and a .500 record through 15 games.
Now, the realization is setting in that Mike Yeo might not be the answer for this organization. While some always thought that, there is a growing group of dissatisfied fans and they are voicing their displeasure with boos and by not showing up to games.
So, the franchise must decide whether to stay the course and hope the players turn it around and live up to expectations or to make a change. Complicating the matter greatly is the sudden availability of sure-fire Hall of Fame coach, Joel Quenneville.
Some say Quenneville might not even want to come to St. Louis since they fired him and his friend, Mike Kitchen. Money talks though and this current management group was not responsible for that decision.
The Blues would offer him a ready-made winnable situation and a chance for revenge on his old team, if he chose such a path. So, everyone has choices to make either during the season or after, depending on what Quenneville wants.
The Blues would be foolish not to kick the tires, at least. So, let’s look at the reasons the Blues should consider rehiring Coach Q.
Mike Yeo Not Getting It Done
For those that only look at the surface numbers, it is hard to say Mike Yeo has been a failure. In parts of three seasons, he has an overall record of 72-46-11 (as of writing this article). That is a .601 winning percentage, which is a number anyone should strive for.
The issue becomes when you delve deeper. Yeo’s record is being propped up by a great finish from a team that wanted their old coach, Ken Hitchcock, out and a record start to Yeo’s first full season. Outside of that, it has been a very big disappointment.
After a record-breaking October in 2017, the Blues had a mediocre November and a bad December. Then, in 2018, they basically played .500 hockey in both the end of the 2017-18 season and to start the 2018-19 season (6-6-3 as of writing).
So, while .601 looks great, it is being propped up by that .719 win percentage he saw to end 2016-17. Outside of that, he has basically coached around .500 hockey. That is not good enough, especially when the talent is there to get things done. Maybe, perhaps likely, this current team is not built to win a Stanley Cup, but their coach is not making them better.
His style, or lack thereof, is also a problem. When the Blues hired him, his biggest knock was that viral video that showed him going ballistic on his players in practice.
However, we have gotten the opposite. Yeo appears too soft, unwilling to actually challenge his players to strive for more. He even stated in a postgame press conference once that you cannot force players to do something they are unwilling to do when asked why there was not more forecheck and net-front presence.
I’m sorry, but I thought that is exactly what a coach is supposed to do. thought they were paid to push guys past their own limits to get the best from them. Perhaps it was misinterpreted or just a comment born of frustration after a loss, but it never sat well with me.
Nobody knows how Quenneville would mesh with this group or whether a more authoritarian coach would work so soon after getting rid of one. What we do know is that there are enough examples of this current group not playing the way that Yeo wants anyway, so a change is not out of order.
Quenneville Is A Winner
If you only had a small sample size, you might not be able to make this argument very well. However, Quenneville has over 20 years of head coaching experience by now. That number is closer to 25 years if you include his time as an assistant.
That is a quarter century behind the bench. I am all for youthful ideas and energy, but sometimes experience really does pay off.
Quenneville has not just lucked into good teams either, though he has been extremely fortunate. This is not like Phil Jackson where, as great as he was, you could make the argument he only ever had championship caliber teams to coach.
Quenneville has made as many winners as he backed into. While some of his Blues teams might have been the strongest we have ever seen in terms of depth, he also coached up several teams in St. Louis.
Until 2017-18, when the Chicago Blackhawks’ salary cap issues caught up to them at last, none of his teams had ever finished under .500. That team and his first year as head coach in Colorado were the only times any of his teams missed the playoffs too.
Then, you cannot ignore three Stanley Cup rings. The Blackhawks might have been as loaded as any teams in recent memory, but that takes nothing away from getting those teams to play his way. You can’t brush aside the fact the Stanley Cup is probably the hardest playoff journey and most difficult trophy to win. To do it three times is impressive.
On top of that, it was not like it was the same team over and over. The core pieces were there, but the contracts handed out put those teams behind the eight ball too. Neverthless, Quenneville managed to find the right chemistry with new pieces playing key roles every time out.
I’m not saying Quenneville would automatically be able to use the young players with the Blues any better, but he certainly managed to find the right roles for guys in Chicago. The Blackhawks might not have been able to keep them all, but they surely produced a lot of young talent that got paid in quick succession. Those guys had the talent, but having the right scenario and coach willing to help them also played a part.
Goaltender Whisperer
This one might be more coincidence than anything, but you cannot deny the fact that Quenneville won with some mediocre goalies.
When he started, he had a Hall of Famer in Grant Fuhr, but he was at the end of his career. After that, we saw names like Jamie McLennan, Rich Parent, Brent Johnson, Jim Carey, Roman Turek, Fred Brathwaite, Chris Osgood, Curtis Sanford and Reinhard Divis. All of those guys were either mediocre, backups at best or flash-in-the-pans.
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In Colorado, he had to flip back and forth between Peter Budaj and Jose Theodore, who both fit the same bill as the Blues goaltenders. Then, in Chicago, he had Nikolai Khabibulin, Cristobal Huet, Antti Niemi, Corey Crawford and a laundry list of backups. That group of talent was probably the highest he’s ever had, but still not the highest of quality.
Khabibulin had been there before, getting to the finals with Tampa Bay, but he was never the main reason either franchise won. Niemi was a good 1b, but has shown that his success had as much or more to do with Chicago than his talent. Crawford has won a ton of games, but again, there have been plenty of nights they won because of the team. If you put him on a borderline playoff team, he does not transform them into a contender, despite his rings.
So, whether Quenneville actually knows anything about goaltending or not, he has managed to get his goaltenders to play good enough to win with. That is the bottom line and exactly what the Blues need right now.
I am one of the few, if not only, that consistently says goaltending is not the Blues biggest issue right now. It might not always be the solution, but there are so many other problems that happen before the shot even gets taken. If Quenneville could just get them settled down, this team would be on the right track.
The Blues are not winning games because of their goaltending right now, but they just cannot lose games because of it. They have shown, even in their struggles, if they do not rely on their goaltender, they give themselves a chance to win.
Whether you wanted this guy or that in net, none of the Blues goalies were all time greats within the past 20 years or so. So, you just need to get them to play well enough to allow your other pieces to do their job. Quenneville seems to have a pretty good track record in that department.
Offense
This one almost goes without saying. Actually, it is somewhat interesting how good Quenneville’s teams have been offensively, considering he is a defensive coach.
In his very first full season with the Blues, they led the league in goals scored. In his tenure with the Blues, they only finished out of the top 10 in scoring twice and the second time was the year he lost his position.
Similarly, he only finished outside of the top 10 in goals scored twice with the Blackhawks too. Two times in 11 years. The first time, they still went on to win the Stanley Cup. The second time was when his team’s lack of financial flexibility finally caught up to the roster.
Clearly, you cannot give all the credit to Quenneville. He has had generational talents like Brett Hull, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa.
He, and those on his staff, have molded some good players too. He got some of the best years out of Pavol Demitra. Scott Young was a 40 goal scorer under his system. He got guys like Cory Stillman and Craig Conroy to overachieve. He also oversaw the beginnings of good careers to guys like Artemi Panarin and Alex DeBrincat.
With the way the current group of Blues is constructed, he would not have to change much offensively. As of writing this, the Blues are actually second in the league in goals scored per game. That stat changes game to game, but shows there is offensive talent here.
All Quenneville would need to do is find the right mix for consistency. Getting some guys to backcheck and cover more consistently would help too, but that deals more with our next point.
Mike Yeo has not always had a full shed of tools, but he has not gotten the most out of what he’s had either, albeit in a brief time. Quenneville would.
Defense
Quenneville is a former defenseman himself, so he knows what the position needs to do. Now, as a player, he was not the best ever. His stats leave something to be desired, but he knows what defenders need to be doing after playing on so many bad teams.
Quenneville had the misfortune of spending most of his career with the expansion Colorado Rockies and then some very bad Hartford Whalers teams. Back then, expansion teams always stunk for years and Hartford was never that great, especially in the mid-to-late 80’s. So, you can give him a pass for those plus/minus stats. It all helped mold him into a good coach, though.
During his time with the Blues, they never finished lower than the middle half of the league in goals allowed. During his best seasons, the Blues were top five in the NHL in goals allowed.
With the Blackhawks, Quenneville kept that going. His teams were regularly some of the better teams in goals allowed. 2011-12 and 2017-18 were the only years that Quenneville’s teams finished in the bottom third in goals allowed. They rebounded in 2012-13 to be best in the league and 2017-18 was the only time in Quenneville’s career that any of his teams finished sub-.500, as mentioned.
He does not always have the best of players in his second and third pairings, as we saw with his Blues teams, but he gets them to do their job. That would be huge for this current group of Blues players.
There is talent there, but they all seem to want to do different things rather than play a style or system. I fully believe that someone with Quenneville’s pedigree and talent could whip this current defensive group into shape or, at least, give good input as to who to bring in.
They Won’t: Yeo Is An Armstrong Guy
People who follow my articles regularly know that I am a Doug Armstrong guy. That does not mean I think he’s the best GM ever or even one of the best in the league right now. I do think he has made some exemplary deals and a reasonable job with the salary cap.
I also am not one of these people that thinks Armstrong purposely does things so the Blues do not win. I believe he will try anything if it makes sense for the team’s present and future.
That said, I am not quite sure he would be willing to pull the plug on Yeo so early. Armstrong waited as long as humanly possible to let Ken Hitchcock go, even though there were signs the locker room was turning the other way, but that was because the team was winning.
Yeo is not winning as much as we had hoped. However, he was hand-picked by Armstrong to be the guy.
Armstrong could have ridden out Hitchcock’s last season with a lame-duck staff, see how everything played out and found a new coach in the offseason. Instead, he brought Yeo in to be the coach-in-waiting.
That emboldened the players that wanted Hitch out already, forcing Armstron’g hand. The question is whether he would be equally willing to say his own pick is a failure with only one full season under his belt (two if he stays the entire year in 2018-19).
I am just not certain that happens. Sure, if the Blues miss the playoffs, or even go into their annual winter funk which would all but eliminate them, then all bets are off.
For some reason, unless it all really goes south, I just do not get the feeling Armstrong would pull the plug yet. There are too many excuses, such as poor defense (which can be fixed via free agency), lack of chemistry, etc.
Maybe I’m wrong. I take no joy in thinking a person should lose their job or a team might be better off without, but when you have someone of a higher caliber available, it is hard not to want that person in the role instead. All I would ask is that he never grab his crotch again.
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Time will tell how this plays out. Personally, I think Q stays out until the offseason to rest up. Unfortunately, by then, the number of suitors may double if the Blues do not pounce.