The Bernie Miklasz Show

Your St. Louis Blues are in a swoon, having gone 1-5-1 in the last seven games and straining to score enough goals to be competitive. This is part of a 3-8-1 stretch that has made the Blues the worst team in the NHL (.292 points percentage) since Oct. 26.

As the Blues were playing against Minnesota at Enterprise Center Tuesday night, the news of a coaching change went public: the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery after the team got off to a rocky and chaotic start. Montgomery was straight-up scapegoated by a GM who had offered the coach a contract extension earlier this year. So Montgomery is out. That's life for an NHL coach. This league devours them.

Montgomery has Blues roots. His first NHL season as a player was here in 1993-94. He coached the UHL Missouri River Otters. Montgomery was a successful coach in Dallas but the Stars fired him because of Monty's problems with excessive drinking. But Montgomery entered rehab, cultivated a network of supporters to help him through the personal crisis, and cleaned up his life. The Blues gave him a second chance to return to the NHL as an assistant to Craig Berube for two seasons, and Montgomery has said that he'll always be grateful.

Montgomery left St. Louis when the Bruins offered him their head-coaching job -- and in his first season (2022-2023) the Bruins went 65-12-5 for 135 points, capturing the Presidents Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team. His career points percentage as an NHL head coach in Dallas and Boston is an exceptional .659.

Is a homecoming in the works? Montgomery's wife is a St. Louis native and the family (including four kids) still has a home here. Montgomery is close with Blues GM Doug Armstrong. It may not be fair to talk about Montgomery replacing him as Bannister is only 20 games into his first season as the Blues full-time (not interim) coach. But Armstrong almost certainly would have hired Montgomery if the Bruins fired him for losing in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. But Boston escaped and the Montgomery kept the job. That's when Armstrong decided to stick with Bannister, the interim who had succeeded Berube when Berube was dismissed last season. Will Armstrong make a move? Will he give Bannister more time to get the Blues on track? But if Armstrong waits too long, would he lose Montgomery, to another disappointing team that's looking to shake things up? Hey, Army fired the only Stanley Cup-winning coach in Blues franchise history. And if the Blues boss was willing to do that, one would think that he'd be willing to part with the largely unestablished Bannister because of an opportunity to get the coach (Montgomery) who was on the top of his list earlier in 2024.

The St. Louis Cardinals are using 2025 as a showcase for their younger, less experienced players. The "play the kids" mantra s somewhat misleading because some of the guys that are part of a so-called youth movement have actually been in the majors for two or three seasons. Moreover, if the Cardinals aren't committed to giving abundant playing-time opportunities to two of their youngest and least experienced position players -- Victor Scott II and Ivan Herrera -- then what's all this noise about?

Speaking with Tom Ackerman on KMOX this past Sunday, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak described the kind of team he wants the 2025 Cardinals to be. His answer: "What I really hope the identity of this club is, that it's a younger, athletic, entertaining, fun-to-watch team." Mozeliak also said the offense (hopefully) would be a balance between power and "guys that can hit doubles and put the ball in play. ... a team that can score in multiple ways."

That sounds good, but do the Cardinals have the pieces -- as of now -- to play that kind of ball in 2025? Can they be a more athletic team? Last season the Cards ranked 12th in the NL in home runs, 11th in slugging, 11th in doubles, and 10th in triples. With the new rules installed before the 2023 season to make it much easier to steal bases, the Cardinals have lagged to keep up with the new trend; over the past two seasons the Cardinals were 25th among 30 MLB teams in base-stealing effectiveness per the FanGraphs metric. And part of that is a lack of team speed; last season they were one of the slowest teams in the majors. I hope the Cardinals can play a more athletic, speed-oriented, aggressive style of baseball offensively in 2025, but there aren't enough pieces to fit that specific profile. Thanks for watching, and please subscribe!

St. Louis Cardinals rookie shortstop did not receive a single vote -- nothing -- in the annual NL Rookie of the Year voting done by the Baseball Writers Association of America. I didn't think Winn had a chance to win the award; Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes was an obvious choice, and Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill deserved to finish second.

I thought Winn would get at least two or three third-place votes, but that didn't happen either. Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga got four third-place votes, meaning that his total ballot points was fourth on the list. Winn's name didn't surface on any of the 30 individual ballots.

I think this is a little unusual for a reason: using the Baseball Reference version of Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Winn led all major-league rookies with 4.9 total WAR. He was the top-rated rookie in the majors defensively. He was No. 2 among major-league rookies for offensive WAR. (To repeat: not just the National League - but in all of the majors.) Moreover, Winn won the Fielding Bible Award for the best shortstop (defensively) in the majors. And he led MLB shortstops in defensive runs saved. Winn was a NL finalist for a gold glove at shortstop this season but didn't win the award.

Question: with Winn being overlooked in the voting -- or at least underrated -- what does this say, if anything, about the Cardinals' two-year decline and the loss of prestige and prominence as a franchise? The Cardinals haven't been a postseason factor since 2019, do they have faded from the October platform. I think the loss of relevancy makes it hard for a candidate like Winn to win an award. The Fielding Bible award is a different honor, handled with great care by Sports Info Solutions. And the panel at Sports Info Solutions doesn't care about where a player's team finished in the standings.

I am interested in your opinion on this. Please comment. And I thank you for watching.

It makes a tremendous amount of sense for the St. Louis Cardinals to trade their elite closer, Ryan Helsley, this offseason. His value has never been higher than it is now. The Cardinals are highly unlikely to emerge as a legit contender for a 2025 postseason spot, and Helsley can walk as a free agent after the '25 season. This is the right time to cash in on Helsley in a deal that would give the Cardinals at least a couple of young trade acquisitions that can strengthen their future. It's imperative for the STL front office to take the long view here.

In this video I discuss the only two reasons why it would make sense for the Cardinals to hold onto Helsley -- and those reasons do not make sense. And for those who prefer keeping Helsley with the idea of flipping him to a desperate contender at the 2025 deadine ... well, that strategy could blow up if he suffers a substantial injury. And that's always a risk with high-velocity relievers. Thank you for watching, subscribing and commenting.

The Mizzou football coaches and players and backers expected big things from the Tigers in 2024. After last season's 11-2 emergence, Missouri entered this campaign with high hopes, enormous hype, raised expectations, higher standards and a relatively easy schedule. After losing at South Carolina 34-30, MU is 7-3 overall, 3-3 in the SEC, and 2-3 against FBS level teams that have a winning record. Mizzou can still log a 10-win season by winning their final three games -- at Mississippi State, Arkansas at home, and then a bowl game. But the Tigers let a grand opportunity slip away, and the talk of making the 12-team playoff has been silenced. Missouri came up short of the No. 1 goal: build on 2023's excellence, qualify for the expanded playoff tournament, and gain recognition as rising program that's reached a prominent level. That hasn't happened. And that's a huge disappointment. As it turned out, MU was overhyped.

In this video I discuss how Missouri's defense cannot shake a terrible habit, a failure that cost the Tigers a must-win game. I also take a step back and look at the 2024 season from an overview standpoint. How should we feel? How do YOU feel? Please leave a comment. Thanks for your support.

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills renew their colorful and wonderfully entertaining rivalry on Sunday afternoon (3:25 pm STL time.) This is the best regular-season matchup -- so far -- on the 2024 NFL schedule. The Chiefs are only the fifth reigning Super Bowl champion to open the next season by winning the first nine games. If they can get by the Bills, KC should be 12-0 as the schedule moves into December. The Bills, 8-2, are off to their best start to a season since 1993.

And then we have Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen. Mahomes doesn't have many peers, but Allen is one of them. This will be the 8th meeting between Mahomes and Allen (including postseason) during their NFL careers. Allen has taken down Mahomes and the Chiefs three times in four regular-season games, but Mahomes has the bragging rights because of his 3-0 postseason record against Allen and the Bills.

The NFL hasn't had a quarterback rivalry of this magnitude since Peyton Manning and Tom Brady engaged in their memorable series of duels, with Brady owning the better record in regular-season games -- and Manning winning three of five postseason games.

In this video I talk about the matchup, offer some information that may be pertinent to your wager strategy ... and of course, I'll pick the winner of Sunday's game at Buffalo. Thanks for watching.

The Cardinals are promoting the 2025 season as a "Let the kids play!" initiative as the baseball operation takes time to regroup, rebuild the terribly outdated player-development and minor-league infrastructure, and take a long look at the younger players/pitchers on the MLB roster who can be an important part of a changing nucleus going forward.

One issue: "Let the kids play!" means ... actually letting the kids play. And I wonder if we'll see a true competition in spring training. Are some of the decisions already predetermined? I think we have a test case in center field. Victor Scott II and Michael Siani ...manager Oli Marmol and the coaches are obviously huge fans of Siani's exceptional defense and speed. And before he suffered a strained oblique in early August last season, Siani had generated surprisingly good offense over a month-plus of action. Was that enough to win the job in advance of 2025? Will Scott get a fair and full chance to win the starting job? Siani is older than Scott and has played nearly 1,200 more career games (minors and majors) than Scott.

In my view -- and I could be wrong -- Scott has more long-range upside than Siani, but what's the priority in 2025? Is it REALLY about letting the kids play? I don't know. I suppose we'll find out. But nothing is gained by rigging the competition. I discuss all of this in today's video. Thanks for watching.

This is a video about a horse named Noot. For the St. Louis Cardinals to improve offensively in a meaningful way in 2025, Lars Nootbaar will have to play enough to make a difference. Nootbaar draws a lot of walks, fuels the team's onbase percentage, and can hit for power. He can also play all three outfield positions. He isn't much of a base stealer, but I don't care about that. I dwell on what he does well. And when Nootbaar is healthy, he does many things well.

But that's the problem: over the past two seasons combined, he's missed 103 in-season days because of five stays on the injured list. Because of his many absences, Nootbaar hasn't provided the high-level impact he's capable of delivering. And that reduces his value. Can Nootbaar hold up in 2025 to make 140+ starts? And if he is physically able to play that much, will manager Oli Marmol wise up and put Nootbaar in the leadoff spot -- the obvious lineup location place where he belongs? Or will Marmol repeat the mistake he made last season when the Cardinals finished last in the majors with a .292 leadoff onbase percentage. Historically, that .292 leadoff OBP was much, much worse than it seems. In this video, I'll share an important statistical nugget to explain just how bad it was. Thanks for watching.

For many years the St. Louis Cardinals would mystify front-office executives of other teams by consistently hitting the jackpot with later-round draft picks, low-key trades, and low-cost but high-value free agent signings. These successful sleight of hand moves frustrated opponents and confused media people. How do the Cardinals continue to do this? What do they see in a player that other teams can't see? Why do players go to St. Louis after playing elsewhere and suddenly get better? This became known as "Devil Magic," and the Cardinals had it in abundance.

But in recent years, the Cardinals have lost the touch. And now we have seen a "reverse" Devil Magic set in ... with other teams collecting players/pitchers that stalled or failed in St. Louis, only to thrive in a new environment. The Cardinals are on the wrong end of Devil Magic and only have themselves to blame for letting the high standards fall, the culture collapse, and the leadership weaken. In this video, I offer several theories to explain what went wrong. Thanks for watching.

With Wilson Contreras staying, and with Sonny Gray highly likely to stay, the 2025 Cardinals might not be as bad as expected. I've been hearing that a lot from fans and my fellow media friends. And I think it's an interesting question that warrants a closer look. In this video I cite some of the reasons why the Cardinals could surprise us - within reason -- next season. And that scenario depends on the bounce-back potential of young hitters Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman ... plus other factors.

But I also believe we should make sure to have a reality check. Because there is one area of this team that must turn in an outstanding performance in 2025, or this talk of improvement will quickly fade. In this video I explain the why there are clouds over the positive forecast. And in the latter part of the video, I drop some easy to understand stats on you that will open some eyes. Thanks for watching!