For Mike Yeo, coming home to North Bay is his time to relax.
The St. Louis Blues head coach came home directly after his last summer coaching responsibility at the St. Louis Blues Prospects Camp in early July.
“I came up here right away to our cottage and lately this is our downtime,” said Yeo.
“I’ve been doing a lot of fishing and trying to recharge.”
It was a busy 16 months for the North Bay native. He lost his job in February of 2016 with the Minnesota Wild, then led Team Canada to Gold at the 2016 World Championships. In the summer, he was hired as the associate coach to take over for a soon-to-be retiring Ken Hitchcock in St. Louis, and then in February of 2017 with the team struggling, Yeo was given the head coaching position for the rest of the season where he ironically was able to lead the Blues past his former Wild team in the opening round of the 2017 playoffs in five games (4-1), before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup finalist Nashville Predators in the second round four games to two.
Yeo admits that series against the Wild was tough. In fact, both his wife and his son were still living in Minnesota last year which made it even more difficult to endure.
“There was an awful lot of emotion with that series, so my wife and my son stayed back in Minnesota last year so my son could finish his senior year in high school so I’m living away from them and next thing you know I’m in Minnesota where they are living and obviously I want to remain professional so I’m staying at the hotel so I would not even see them when we are there but to know that I’m coaching against them and the city they are living in, and they have to read the papers and they have to deal with people at school every day or people that they come across so it was a really unique situation,” Yeo explained about his team that went 15-2-2 down the stretch into the playoffs.
Yeo says he tried to avoid a personal approach to the series and really had his team focus on winning a playoff series and getting another step closer to winning the Stanley Cup.
“I did not feel any differently there but I did feel a lot more relief and I think that losing against them would have been tough and obviously would have been a shot to the ego but I felt some pressure that way, but when it comes to winning and being happy about that, I was not necessarily happy to beat them but just more happy that we kept on going,” said Yeo.
With the off-season in full swing, the Blues management brought in a familiar face for both Mike Yeo and North Bay hockey fans. Last month the Blues signed free agent forward Chris Thorburn, one of the last former North Bay Centennials playing pro hockey in the National Hockey League. He would be the only former Centennial in the NHL should Chris Neil hang up his skates this summer.
Yeo had Thorburn when he as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He even witnessed the Sault Ste. Marie native’s first NHL goal, which was assisted by none other than Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.
“I had ‘Thorbs' in Pittsburgh for a short period of time so I knew and we were looking for someone with some character,” said Yeo, noting the Blues lost physical forward Ryan Reaves to free agency this summer.
“We were looking for a guy to bring a physical element, somebody who is going to have to compete for a lineup spot night in and night out and with that they are going to bring an energy and emotion to the game that is going to be contagious to the rest of the group but with that we wanted a character guy, a veteran guy and he fit that bill. I’ve worked with him, I’ve coached him, and I know what kind of guy he is and I think he will be a great fit.”
While Yeo doesn’t spend as much time as he would like in his hometown, he still keeps his eye on the state of hockey in his hometown.
“I live it through my brother and my sister, and their kids and their involvement in the game so I know, I was actually at the rink the other day watching my nephew practice and you can see how full the rink is in the middle of summer on a beautiful day,” said Yeo.
Yeo had to leave home early to play major junior hockey in Sudbury, but he does not agree with younger players and families moving away from North Bay to pursue their collective hockey dreams.
“I know what the passion is up here, I’d like to see the local kids stay here in North Bay,” said Yeo.
“I know that sometimes they venture off and I don’t understand why it goes on but I think that you look at the quality of players that have come through North Bay over the years and I think it’s a great market for developing, it’s a great place to play,” he added.
“For me, some of the best times of my life were playing there and I always believe that if you are good enough they will find you so I think the game is in a great spot in North Bay and I don’t see any reason why it would not continue to be.”
With all the hockey turnover this past season, Yeo is cherishing his time as an NHL head coach.
“You don’t see guys holding positions and holding jobs seven, eight, nine years anymore, he said.
“Now the average is closer to two or three years tops as far as an average goes. You see some guys that hang in there a little bit longer, but with that you obviously when a job opens up and somebody else gets hired and what you are seeing right now with a lot of teams at the NHL level, are hiring a lot of younger coaches and pulling them from various leagues and obviously that means a lot more openings so there is a trickle down effect for sure.”
That means the margin for error is limited. Yeo realizes other teams in the West have loaded up this off-season.
“We know that our division is going to be really tough but that said, we would be extremely disappointed if we did not make the playoffs and we also feel if we make it to the playoffs that we are the type of team that should be really hard to beat.”
