GDT #75: 3/23/17 | 7:00 PM CDT | vs Coyotes | FSMW/KMOX

[glen a richter]

Turek played with MacInnis and Chris Frikken Pronger on a defensive juggernaut of a team in a defensive era. Elliott played part time duty on a team that was as defensively responsible as any team Turek played on with the Blues. Now this years team, not quite as defensively responsible until Yeo took over. What we should be asking is this: under teams with comparable defenses and given the identical workload, would Elliott be better than Allen was at any point this season? I would say no. When the team was playing like garbage at the end of Hitch, I don't believe Elliott would have stolen any of the games Allen didn't. Now that they're playing better, Allen is fine playing as the clear #1. His numbers since Yeo took over have been fantastic. So the only other thing to ask is would Elliott have been equally good under Yeo? Again, I don't think so--given the same workload. He never proved he could be a #1, only that he could be a 1B. He had a spell where he was so god awful he actually got sent down for a while, and some of his worst goaltending as a Blue was when the 1A was injured and there was no one to push him.

[Oaklandblue]

Turek played with MacInnis and Chris Frikken Pronger on a defensive juggernaut of a team in a defensive era. Elliott played part time duty on a team that was as defensively responsible as any team Turek played on with the Blues. Now this years team, not quite as defensively responsible until Yeo took over. What we should be asking is this: under teams with comparable defenses and given the identical workload, would Elliott be better than Allen was at any point this season? I would say no. When the team was playing like garbage at the end of Hitch, I don't believe Elliott would have stolen any of the games Allen didn't. Now that they're playing better, Allen is fine playing as the clear #1. His numbers since Yeo took over have been fantastic. So the only other thing to ask is would Elliott have been equally good under Yeo? Again, I don't think so--given the same workload. He never proved he could be a #1, only that he could be a 1B. He had a spell where he was so god awful he actually got sent down for a while, and some of his worst goaltending as a Blue was when the 1A was injured and there was no one to push him.

Allen has had streaks where he's been trash too but we can't map it as well because Jake Allen's sample size is much smaller than Elliott's.

If you put both netminders aside one another and isolate the backgrounds for this year alone, on two different teams, one can argue based on stats that they are both the same quality of netminder. If we seperate them, we can argue that when Elliott's catches fire, he has no ceiling. That's something we have seen spurts from with Allen, one of the reasons I was totally against breaking them up; it guaranteed us that whoever gets between the pipes was a quality netminder that can roll. Playoffs for Jake are really the big question: If it comes down to it, can he carry? If he gets injured can Hutton carry? That's the big advantage we lost in the trade.

At this point and time, Elliott has accomplished more and it's just that simple. Allen has the helm now and the opportunity to prove he's the guy. The one thing I am concerned with, even given my backing Elliott and the Flames, is what happens if Jake Allen collapses during the first round of the playoffs and the Flames make it to the WCF? That's not as far-fetched as people here may think it is.

Then again, so many people here are convinced that it's not "The Blues Year" that they'll take solid regular season stats over anything in the playoffs for reasons that outright astound me. If the team really worked that way (and I don't think the Blues really do, regardless how inane Army can be), then I couldn't see being a fan of a team like that. It's like constant torture just to feel the pain.

At the end of the day, it's not even going to be about how well/bad Allen is, but how well/bad the offense is. If the Offense gets rolling in the playoffs, I'll call Jake Allen God.

[glen a richter]

It's not the Blues year or pretty much anyone in the WC's year because the Metropolitan is the absolute strongest division hockey has seen in ages. Better than even those really strong central divisions of recent history. There is no way, aside from sheer luck, that anyone other than a Metropolitan team is winning the Cup in the next few seasons. Literally the worst thing that could happen to the Blues is to go on a tear and work their way all the way to the SCF only to lose to Washington. That would render their two first rounders a #30 and a #31. Big deal. And I would not put any amount of money on the Blues (or anyone else, for that matter) in a 7 game series against any team from the Metro.

[gaijin]

And I would not put any amount of money on the Blues (or anyone else, for that matter) in a 7 game series against any team from the Metro.

New Jersey?

[glen a richter]

And I would not put any amount of money on the Blues (or anyone else, for that matter) in a 7 game series against any team from the Metro.

New Jersey?

Any playoff team. Oy vey, Gaijin.

[gaijin]

And I would not put any amount of money on the Blues (or anyone else, for that matter) in a 7 game series against any team from the Metro.

New Jersey?

Any playoff team. Oy vey, Gaijin.

I was tracking, just had to take the opportunity...