St. Louis Blues All-Star Game Gets Weirder With Coaching Swap

As fans of the St. Louis Blues, we have come to expect the unexpected. Even with that in mind, their All-Star Game is already setting up to be odd.

The St. Louis Blues have not hosted an All-Star Game in over 30 years. Leave it to that typical St. Louis luck that there are already oddities happening prior to the game itself.

Overall, it is an exhibition, so these things do not matter in the grand scheme, but there are rare events that most cities don’t deal with. The Blues’ event is already an interesting one.

When the coaches were announced, everything made sense. The coaches for each team were selected according to whoever was in first place in that division after the turn of the calendar.

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Then, Vegas threw a wrench in the entire plan by firing Gerard Gallant. It did not make sense to me personally, as well as plenty of fans, but that is their prerogative.

At the time, they were on a four-game losing streak and had fallen out of first place. The thing most people questioned was why since first and fifth place in the Pacific Division have often been separated by only a point. At the most, there have only been a handful of points separating all the rotating teams.

Regardless of the why, the who was the main question for those associated with the All-Star Game. Namely, who was going to coach the Pacific.

Honestly, I did not know if there was anything in place for a situation like this. It would not have been shocking for the league to let Gallant coach.

After all, the league let John Scott captain an All-Star team he was no longer a part of. Granted, the NHL was given little choice due to fan backlash, but at the time he was a member of the Montreal organization but had been voted in while a member of Arizona. He played for the Pacific Division.

There was no such fan backlash or even interest regarding Gallant really. In fact, apparently, the league named Arizona Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet coach of the Pacific division a few days after Gallant was fired and nobody really knew.

At most, there may have been a press release sent out to a few outlet. They did not make it widely known though.

Again, who really cares? Not many people, outside of Gallant’s circles.

With that in mind, would it really have been that big a deal if Gallant stayed coach? Sure, he was not voted in, but he was selected at the time, so why not let him stay?

If nothing else, it would have been interesting to see the Vegas players’ reaction to playing one more game for him. If we are to believe their reaction after the firing, they were unaware it could happen. Or, maybe they were secretly pushing for it behind the scenes. It has happened here in St. Louis, even during the best of times. Sometimes players just get tired of a certain person or style.

Nobody knows that for sure and there have not been talks of that being the case. It seems as though it was just a GM and owner that expected more than a Stanley Cup Final appearance and being one five-minute major away from advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

Anyway, it’s just an interesting chapter in the St. Louis All-Star Game now. Leave it to this city’s luck to have an oddity like this as part of their festivities.