It’s that time of year when all are jolly and, whether you enjoy it or not, the Christmas music is playing. So, why not mix the St. Louis Blues into that holiday festivity?
The St. Louis Blues are our favorite hockey team. This time of the year is the favorite of many. So, why not combine them in some horrible way that will likely waste all our time? Let’s get on with the 12 days of Bluesmas.
On the first day of Bluesmas the blue note gave to me, a Snake in a blue crease. Soak it in people. The rest of these probably won’t be lucky enough to have the same rhyme of the original song.
The first day of Christmas in the song gets the most play. Granted, by the end, there are only 12 partridges given, but they get sung about the most.
So it will be with our starting goaltender. Jake Allen deserves more credit than he gets and less blame than he receives.
Jake the Snake will never be the darling of the internet. Even if he wins a Stanley Cup, there are going to be detractors simply because.
There will always be those that don’t like him because of who he replaced or just because there are many out there who always blame the goaltender. It’s an unenviable situation, but that’s the life of the netminder.
Allen is not nearly as bad as some would make out. It is true that his stats aren’t as high as any of us would like or even he would expect of himself, but he’s not terrible either.
Jake currently has a save percentage of .906 and a goals against of 2.52. The goals against is not too nice, as he is ranked 23rd in the league, but there are some high profile names even further down. Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Smith, Ben Bishop, Ryan Miller and even Brian Elliott have higher goals against numbers.
The save percentage is not what would be expected at all. Again, Bishop is tied, Elliott is worse as is Marc-Andre Fleury and Petr Mrazek.
None of that is to be a complete apologist for Allen. He needs to do better in some instances. He is giving up too many five-hole goals and some softies as well.
Allen must be more consistent. His number of quality starts is just above the league average. At the moment, he is too much a mirror of his own team with spectacular saves that boggle the mind only to see something simple get by him.
Perhaps he is overthinking or trying too hard since he knows the team’s offense is hit or miss. Maybe he’s a little shell shocked with all the odd-man rushes and lack of proper defending, regardless of the actual shot totals faced.
One of the problems Allen faces is the actual lack of shots against sometimes. The Blues defense limits shot totals on many nights, but gives up way too many high-quality chances.
A goaltender’s stats will never benefit if they only face seven or eight shots in one period, but six of them came from a two-on-one or in the low slot. Those kind of odds make it almost necessary to pitch shutouts with regularity and that just does not happen in today’s NHL.
Allen does keep the Blues in games more often than given credit for though. Sadly that can’t be quantified as much statistically. As much grief as he was given in the Blues’ embarrassing 6-3 loss to Nashville, if not for the Snake, St. Louis could easily have been down one or two goals in the first five minutes.
That happens with regularity. The problem is we fans remember the bad times too much. Like coaches in many sports with losses, the NFL in particular, we seem to be affected by the bad goals more than any of the great saves.
Like the song, there are parts that get more publicity than Allen. There are none that will be as important to the team’s success.
Yes, we need the scorers to step up in the playoffs. We need the defenders to quit being a bunch of pee-wee players and backing off.
We also need the Snake. Carter Hutton is not leading this team where we want it to go. The Blues are not giving up on Allen unless some blockbuster deal the likes of which are in video games comes along.
So, we need Allen to be at his best. Whether you like him or not, I believe Allen’s best is good enough to win a championship. It’s just one piece of the puzzle though, like the partridge is just one piece of the song.
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