See Yeo Never

Late tonight as I was preparing myself for some slumber, the news flashed across social media that the St. Louis Blues, on the heels of a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, had relieved head coach Mike Yeo of his coaching duties. The excusing of Yeo seemingly was a long-time coming for the Blues after they missed the playoffs last season, but GM Doug Armstrong made it official tonight after the Blues fell to 7-9-3 on the season, sitting in the cellar of the Central Division and 30th-overall in terms of points. Tonight's shutout loss to the 31st-place Kings - the Blues' third game being shutout in their last four games - was the final straw for Armstrong.

The Blues made a number of moves this summer to erase the memories of missing the playoffs that included a trade for Ryan O'Reilly and the signings of Tyler Bozak, Pat Maroon, and David Perron, but only O'Reilly came as advertised when it comes to collecting points. Seeing players such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Alexander Steen struggle to find the back of the net only compounded the problems that Yeo was facing, and some rather poor netminding from Jake Allen only exacerbated those scoring woes.

Yeo's system in St. Louis simply wasn't working, and it felt a lot like his struggles towards the end of his stint in Minnesota. Players that one expected to perform either couldn't or wouldn't, and the Blues seemed to struggle simply breaking out of their own zone. That's a tough thing to state when you consider that Alex Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko, Joel Edmundson, and Jay Bouwmeester are the four defenders logging the most time.

You wonder if Armstrong might have made this decision thinking about this summer. Included in the deal for O'Reilly was a lottery-protected first-round pick, so not making the playoffs would force Armstrong into deciding whether to give Buffalo this year's first-round pick or next year's first-round pick. Making the playoffs takes some of the pressure off Armstrong with respect to that decision, so perhaps Armstrong was protecting himself with this move as much as he's trying to turn around the fortunes of his team.

If Yeo was the move to change those fortunes, the next move for Armstrong would be to reinforce the foundation of this team by acquiring a starting goaltender. Jake Allen currently is not in that realm, and his numbers are reflective of the struggles this team has experienced. Allen ranks 29th in save percentage and 30th in goals-against average among the 34 goalies who have played ten games this season. While it might be somewhat foolish to write off Allen at this point in the season, goaltending has been the Achilles' heel of the Blues for a few seasons now.

Former Philadelphia Flyers head coach and player Craig Berube takes over on an interim basis for Yeo as the Blues move forward. He had been part of Yeo's staff since 2017, so Berube is familiar with the team and its players. Whether or not he can get more out of this squad than Yeo did will remain to be seen, but the one certainty is that after a coaching change comes roster changes if the Blues can't break out of this funk.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!