ST. LOUIS -- The writing was on the wall for the St. Louis Blues in their divisional matchup against the Arizona Coyotes.
Hosting a team at the end of a road trip, third game in four nights, the chance to push the visitors out of the game early, keep gaining some steam following a 2-1 shootout win against the Seattle Kraken and being well-rested.
It was a recipe for success, right?
Well ...
None of that was visible in a 6-2 loss against the Coyotes, who sent the home side to 1-1-1 overall.
Let's look at the three keys to Arizona's win:
1. Puck management an issue for Blues -- Craig Berube summed it up best when discussing the Blues' puck management.
"Passing was awful," the Blues' coach said.
Was it ever.
First off, players were fumbling and stumbling over pucks from start to finish, nothing was sharp, crisp, in stride, clean. The skaters seemed to be fighting pucks all night.
"I don't think we skated that well, guys didn't move their feet enough to even support the puck," defenseman Justin Faulk said. "We all made some lapses in judgment with our puck play and then they controlled the play the whole game from the beginning. They hemmed us in our d-zone, they made some good plays, hit the seams and what not and made it tough on us. It was a lack of us not moving our feet, not ending plays and then when we got the puck, moving our feet to make the plays."
Puck plays led to turnovers, turnovers led to goals against.
"It's execution and it's moving your feet, being ready to play," captain Brayden Schenn said. "I think if you look back at the two previous games how hard it was to get points. We realize anyone can beat anyone in this league. If you're not going to come prepared fully, you have teams that are going to give it to you and hand it to you like they did to us tonight."
2. Keller, Schmaltz continue to do their thing -- The Chesterfield-born, Swansea, Illinois-bred Keller and Schmaltz came into the game a point per game each in their respective careers against the Blues.
Keller was at 24 points in 24 games (10 goals, 14 assists) and Schmaltz, younger brother of Blues first-round pick in 2012, Jordan Schmaltz, was even better at 29 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 29 games.
Each picked up a goal and an assist, and each did so off Blues turnovers.
"Self-inflicted," Berube said describing the mistakes. "We just got the puck taken off of us way too easily. I didn't think that we were heavy enough on pucks, we didn't compete hard enough on pucks and then we didn't execute any plays. Plays were there, we didn't make any plays. ... They outskated us."
Arizona's top two players were very much part of it all.
3. A night to forget for Blues youngsters -- Alexey Toropchenko rightfully earned a promotion to the top six with his hard work, replacing the injured Pavel Buchnevich (upper-body injury), and Nikita Alexandrov moved into the lineup in Buchnevich's absence.
But each had a critical mistake in the game that led to Arizona goals.
Toropchenko's neutral zone turnover with possession of the puck but losing it trying to slide it to oncoming d-man Colton Parayko, putting the puck behind him led to Keller's goal early in the second period for a 2-0 lead, and Alexandrov fumbled a puck in the neutral zone that also led to young defenseman Tyler Tucker getting beat off the edge for a killer goal by Michael Carcone just 42 seconds after Jakub Vrana cut Arizona's lead to 2-1.
In all, it may have been Toropchenko's worst NHL game. As hard as he works, he just doesn't complement that work with the skill necessary to compete in a top six role; Alexandrov can have his moments, and he had one when he nearly scored on a wraparound in the first that would have given the Blues a 1-0 lead, and Tucker seemed to be a turnover machine and positionally wasn't good either. It could prompt the coaches to make a change on the blue line come Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins but that will be decided soon enough. I'm just not sure a lefty playing the right side in Tucker's case fits the short-term plans.
And quite honestly, 2020 first-round pick Jake Neighbours had little to no impact in the game.
A tough night for the youngsters.
