St. Louis Blues: Mike Yeo is treading on thin ice

An abysmal October has the St. Louis Blues and their head coach Mike Yeo in quite a pickle. 

The St. Louis Blues expressed quite a bit of confidence in head coach Mike Yeo after their huge collapse at the end of the 2017-18 season. General Manager Doug Armstrong understood his roster wasn’t the best and they had injury issues. He spent his summer upgrading his roster, acquiring Ryan O’Reilly and signing Tyler Bozak, David Perron, and Pat Maroon.

Though the Blues entered this season as one of the favorites to emerge from the Central Division, they currently have a 2-4-3 record, as they’ve lost more games in overtime or a shootout than they have won. They look completely lost on the ice, ranking 15th in goals scored and 27th in goals against.

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Whether it’s fair or not, part of a head coach’s job is to be a goalie whisperer. If your goalie is good, your job is probably safe. But if he isn’t, you should start updating your resume. Goaltender Jake Allen hasn’t thrown Yeo any bones, posting a .876 save percentage while allowing an alarming 3.93 goals per game.

Now, to be fair, backup goaltender Chad Johnson (4.06 GAA, .857 save percentage in two appearances) isn’t really giving his head coach much of a choice. However, Allen is Yeo’s goalie. He stuck with him despite his struggles last season and the success of then backup goalie Carter Hutton.

At the end of the day, the players are ultimately responsible for their collapse at the end of the 2017-18 season. They’re the ones who needed to pick up four points in their last games. The players looked lifeless while getting blown out 6-0 by the Arizona Coyotes. A late goal by Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, which led to a 4-3 loss, effectively ended their season. You could see it in their eyes.

However, Yeo deserves a good portion of the blame. His reluctance to go with Hutton and his tendency to stick with Allen cost the Blues a postseason spot. In the month of March, Hutton made a whopping three appearances in 13 games. And one of those was a relief appearance. Had Yeo simply rode Hutton’s hot hand a bit more, a playoff spot would have been inevitable.

Thursday’s loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets summed up all of the Blues’ issues. They got out to a 2-0 lead but proceeded to allow four unanswered goals, including three goals in the second period. An Alexander Steen goal just past the midway point of the second period gave the Blues some hope, as they were only trailing 4-3.

All hope was lost after the Blue Jackets scored early in the third period to make it 5-3. Two more unanswered goals and a garbage time goal by Zachary Sanford later, the Blues lost 7-4. Yeo’s calling card is his motivational skills. He hasn’t shown them in quite some time.

The Blues can still somewhat salvage their October if they can beat the Blackhawks on Saturday. However, they’ve already beaten the Blues twice this season in overtime. Seven of their next 10 games are against teams who made the playoffs in 2017-18. If the Blues don’t turn things around quickly, Yeo could be fired for the second time in roughly four years.

When he coached the Minnesota Wild, they eventually grew tired of him. Yeo lost the locker room back then. It appears he has done the same thing again in St. Louis. Yeo’s treading on thin ice right now. If he gets fired, he’ll have no fewer than three significant blemishes on his resume.