Is it time for a new Blues goalie controversy?

Here we go again.

Last night, during the Blues 4-0 romp over the tired San Jose Sharks, the scoreboard showed a feature on Chad Johnson and his recent stats. The Enterprise Center crowd erupted in applause.

The applause was more than warranted, all things considered - Johnson was outstanding in last night’s win. But it portends a bigger issue at hand, and it’s one that we go through every damned year as fans of this team. Do the Blues have a goalie controversy?

God dang it.

Every time that the fans sense poor play from whoever the starting goaltender is - now it’s obviously Jake Allen - and they get a dose of quality play from the other guy, all of a sudden it’s time for a new starting goalie. I haven’t exactly been kind to Allen over the seasons (I think you can set your watch by his annual meltdown), but you can’t blame this season’s deficiencies on him. It’s not fair, especially when the defense has taken this long to come even close to playing like we expect them to be able to play.

Johnson has played 230 minutes across portions of five games this season. He’s allowed seven goals, and he has a 1.83 GAA and .941 save percentage.

He also has a 2-2-0 record.

When a team has enough of an issue that Google autocomples “St. Louis Blues goalie controversy” for you, you know there’s something there. Part of that certainly comes from the team, but part of it comes from the fans. For the love of Pete, can we please get more than a month into the season and a 2-2-0 record out of the Blues’ new backup before the countdown to goaliemageddon begins?

There should not be a Google News page for this.