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46 Comments
I live close to Dallas and can tell you that Dallas is a complete shit hole of a city. I’m not surprised at all at the experience Valimaki had. I’ve tried rooting for the stars, they’re actually a pretty good hockey team, but I absolutely hate Jamie Benn and as long as he plays for them I’m a fan of the other team. I hope they never win a cup.
Anyone having to spend a bunch of time in an emergency room is terrible. Innis surprising that a high-performance professional athlete was exposed to what oh so many commoners face on a regular basis.
Remember that video of Modano and the ambulance
If he was a regular joe he wouldn't have gotten care. Funny how there's only a highlight on the lack of urgent medical care when someone important shines the light on it.
Just shows how broken the American health care system is telling him to go back home
With Kyrou, he was having a bad season and stepped on a live wire. Most fans know this isn't a well constructed team and Chief fell on the sword for Armstrong.
I think a good analogue would be Vancouver last year with Boudreau. The fans were firmly with Bruce over management. Imagine after the firing one of the players said he isn't my coach no comment. They probably would have been excoriated as well.
Hospital workers (doctors, nurses, staff) are the most arrogant, entitled people you will ever meet. They let their true colors shine during the you-know-what. I can't call it what it is, or youtube will censor my comment.
Thank you Shannon for always being the most sensible media source on the internet, never blowing things out of proportion, and seeing all sides of the story.
The healthcare systems in both Canada and USA is in total shambles. People are ill more then ever !
Love the Sharks!
From what I saw Reave's foot ended up on the puck going into the boards.
Long Term Injured Reserve info is everywhere
Absolutely disgusting situation for Valimaki. Poor guy.
As a Dallas resident, it seems just like Valimaki didn’t get any special treatment for being an NHLer and was treated like a normal citizen. I feel very sorry for him having to go through that experience, but it’s the reality for the rest of us here. If you’re not literally actively dying, you’ll have to wait 5 hours minimum. Especially in Dallas proper. Again, I am very sorry for Valimaki that he went through that and I hope this type of situation doesn’t happen again.
For Kyrou, he’s been disappointing fans with his lazy play since he signed that contract. If he either played up to his contract or if he was making half of what he is, we would have probably ignored that completely. But he needs to learn to 1) show a consistent effort and 2) watch his words around Clickbait Rutherford. That guy is literally why I canceled my Athletic subscription a few years ago.
But I don’t think you’ll hear a lot of more boos directed specifically to Kyrou. The team as a whole? I could see that happen. The fanbase is still unhappy
I wasn't in St Louis last night, but as a lifelong Blues fan, I and many of my compatriots feel that the wrong guy got fired. Armstrong has made some real head-scratcher roster moves and signed some guys to NMC contracts that have tied his hands (Krug, Binnington) or let some very popular players walk (Pietrangelo, O'Reilly) or even unceremoniously ushered them out the door (Perron, Husso) with a "don't let it hit ya on the way out". The way he treated Perron was the icing on the cake for me. The Vrana thing isn't helpful. We like Hayes (he's technically a Tkachuk, after all, so a sort of hometown kid coming home to heal after a tragedy) but most of his roster moves since the Cup win have been negative, regardless of cap-era constraints. And he signed Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou to huge 8-year deals. Hearing him scapegoating Berube in that post-firing presser when he damn near got the silk purse out of Army's sows ear of a team emptied what little goodwill he had left with a lot of us.
RE Thomas/Kyrou: With Thomas, we're getting almost a point a game from the guy who was originally cited as the lesser of the wondertwins, but Kyrou has definitely not been playing up to that contract and fans have been frustrated with him almost since the word go. If you find Berube's final postgame presser, you'll see him publicly call out Kyrou specifically. Look back to the Canucks game and you'll see more of it. Kyrou was closed to whatever Chief was selling, his +/- was abysmal. I know that's a shitty stat to hang an argument on, but it's reflective of the feeling among Blues fans that he coughs up the puck too much and doesn't backcheck. He was -9 going into that game versus the Sens, where he was +3 for the first time in what feels like forever, -33 career. He has as many points as Thomas has assists. So when he said that, and importantly Jeremy Rutherford tweeted out just that "No comment, he's not my coach anymore" without much context, he was set up to be booed every time he touched the puck. Shame on Rutherford for misrepresenting the player's overall interview for clicks, but Kyrou ignoring that he has a defacto leadership role on this team because of his salary, and his words have weight is just part of the bigger picture for Blues fans.
On a hopeful note, I really like Bannister. He has a good rep and favors a faster, more modern, fun-to-watch game of hockey with less reliance on grinding it out. He has a good history with Kyrou from his AHL days and maybe he can turn this young player around and lead a team of misfits back to the playoffs. We'll see, but whatever happens, a lot of the Blues faithful have lost faith in Armstrong.
Kyrou has the skill but doesn’t put in the effort. Chief called that out allot and is now gone and his comments (I feel) are the same thing that Chief dealt with constantly. The blues came out saying they are retooling so they knew they were going to struggle to make the playoffs. Why fire the Stanley cup head coach, what changed since the retool statement? Locker room rifts could do that
I feel terrible for Valimaki, but this is life in the American Southwest if one has to go to the ER. It's been like this for decades. The rest of the country doesn't realize what an absolute crisis this is, but for us in the southwest this is "normal": packed ERs day and night.
Migrants first
👍🏻
NHL has become between Laine and Fortnite.
Fans liked Berube and Kyrou apparently didn't. I'm not a Blues fan, but booing your own player at introductions and whenever he touches the puck bc of a no comment answer is just shitty.
An NHL player gets the treatment all the rest of us gets and it's news worthy. 🙄
Re Kyrou and the booing. Watch any of the Blues games so far this season. See how many puck battles Kyrou wins in any game. If it’s more than two I’ll give ya $100. Of the games I watched (about 80%), he had one period in one game where he played elite hockey. The rest of the time, he’s lazy/careless with the puck and not very interested in trying to take it away from the other team when they have it.
Kyrou helped get Berube fired along with Armstrong's poor trade decisions. Personally, if you want a player to perform better you should cheer him but that is hard to do when you don't think he gives a sh!t.
Laine always being injured sucks, but looking back at the injuries, they don’t strike me as preventable. Like last night he got slewfooted into the boards. I don’t think there was any malicious intent there, but I’m not really sure what Laine is supposed to do in that situation
The Kyrou booing was disgusting. Being at the game, I was disgusted at the actions of the Blues fans in attendance (that were actively booing). No one St. Louis player should be booed in the city of St. Louis. Me? I am one of the few Blues fans who thought we needed a change. Our pp is now the worst in the NHL (2nd worst under Berube) and our penalty kill is 20th. The fact we have 14 wins with those kind of numbers is shocking. Watching many games at the Enterprise center, and one in Chicago… it was rough watching that team on the ice. If they showed up, they showed up. If they didn't, well we got embarrassed. I wish Berube the best, he is a hell of a coach. He will always be able to come to St. Louis and drink for free. He will be coaching somewhere in the NHL next season. But it was time for a change in St. Louis.
As a Blues fan, I found the booing pathetic and I wish Kyrou hadn't apologized. You're totally right that the booing doesn't happen if Kyrou had 15 goals. Selective outrage is worthless.
The Boo's for kyrou were because we lost a good coach because Kyrou wasn't trying hard enough. I think a lot of the fans blame Kyrou's poor performance and lack of effort as to why Berube (who is still admired as a good coach) got the boot.
Instead of saying no comment let's move on, Jordan should have apologized and taken responsibility for a portion of their poor performance, which resulted in Craig getting fired
Several years ago I broke my foot in two places playing pick-up basketball, and I sat for over an hour in the ER of my local hospital waiting for more serious cases to be dealt with before anyone saw me for care. It happens, sure, but to tell Valimaki to go to the hotel is beyond awful. Dallas must be a massive, major hospital (way bigger than my local), and they say there was absolutely no one to provide care for all that time? Hard to believe. Hope he's OK! A puck to the mouth at that strength and speed is brutal.
The booing will continue until morale improves
With the hospital situation- waiting hours- yeah, that's pretty normal if you aren't actively dying, currently life-threatening conditions come first. Telling someone with a broken jaw and ongoing bleeding to leave the hospital and sleep- that is not remotely professional behavior if that's what really happened.
Kyrou is very talented but my frustration with him is that it looks like he doesn't want to work. If he would put in the same effort as Thomas he could be a superstar.
Kyrou throwing shade at the coach that got STL their first stanley cup. A team he was not a part of. Being a newcomer, who has a history of being an idiot, and has played like garbage, well, I'm not surprised by the fan reaction at all.
STL fans holding buddy accountable to his words. Don't apologize, bud. Stand by them. Everyone knew what he meant when he said he what he said. Man up, and double down on your stance. Don't cry like a whiny b***h.
That Ted Rami? Like Sam Rami's brother?
Shannon being horrified by the US healthcare system is adorable.
Kyrou is not a good NHL player. He was on the ice for over 100 goals against last season. The last time they made the playoffs 75% of the goals against were directly his fault.
Giving him 8 million a year was the worst decision in franchise history. He got the money they could have spent on Perron O'reilley and Barbashev. With those three instead of Kyrou, the blues are in first place in the central.
Valimaki situation seriously sounds like a rich organization bullying a hospital into treating its players first.
Also saying that NHL players give bad responses because they don’t want pushback is nonsensical because Kyrou got pushback for a non-answer, so shouldn’t they give “good” answers if they don’t want pushback?
I honestly think it's fine that Kyrou got booed during warups. But the fact that he was booed every time he touched the puck and fans cheered when he took a penalty was too far
Blues fan here… The comment from Kyrou was totally blown out of proportion. The Booing of that those "fans" did was embarrassing to the real fan base. Watching the game vs Dallas a few days after and seeing alot of support towards him.
On Valimaki – having been injured in sports, one learns that often swelling occurs that bars any ability to perform surgery, and you have to wait to get it done. it sucks and is painful, but i doubt Valimaki would have been alone at the hotel, and he absolutely could have been wait more comfortable. we'd need to know more about the reasons for the wait and what actually happened after the NHLPA stepped in. separate from that, however, start looking at staffing issues in hospitals of late…. tons of medical personnel quit after covid, burned out. they haven't been replaced, and workers have moved away from high stress jobs, like the ones you'd find at a major metropolitan hospital. and, to be absolutely frank, Texas, and in particular Dallas, has issues with how it treats and pays its medical staff.
Love the jersey
Somebody please sign Kessel and give that man his hot dogs.
Also about healthcare in Texas, this is a state that will not let a woman get an abortion for a life threatening pregnancy. It’s not even a joke, healthcare for average people is an insult.
Hope Valimaki has a speedy recovery, he’s been great for the yotes.
Showing up late, but big fan of THG & the Blues. Normally, I hate fans booing players on their own team. But honestly, with this, I get it. As others have said, Kyrou is perceived/rumored, rightly or not, as having a bit of an attitude problem. Considering his contract paired with his comparatively abysmal play lately, fans are already unhappy with Kyrou. Add in the comment or lack thereof, fans, myself included to be honest, feel like what SHOULDVE come out of his mouth was a statement along the lines of "Yeah, this team, and myself, have really failed to meet the fans' expectations & we're extremely disappointed in our play & sad to see Coach take the fall for that." Instead, whether thats how he meant it or not, his lack of a comment came across more as "yeah, its been rough, but hes gone, good riddance, moving along."
So hes perceived by many of the fans as being at least partially to blame for the firing of a beloved Coach.
As others have also pointed out, Doug Armstrong was also booed, as many, myself included, would much rather have seen him fired than Berube, after several seasons of mostly awful moves, like Krug's large deal w a NTC, re-signing Leddy over Perron, letting Petro walk bc of a NMC (esp as a recent story has suggested that the Blues could have had Petro back for as little as $7.5M/year). Blues fans are severely unhappy with the team, esp with management.
Berube future Blues GM?