It’s only one game, but what was made of the St. Louis Blues 5-0 season-opening loss against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday?
Well, if you look at some advanced metrics, including the ones on moneypuck.com, had the Blues winning that game 57 percent of the time. Well, that’s why there are simulations that can be thrown out the window.
Because the bottom line is the result, and the result says the Blues lost this one badly despite doing a number of good things that did not transpire into results.
“It didn’t feel like a 5-0 game to us,” Blues forward Jake Neighbours said. “We had a good start, I liked the way we started and they get kind of a lucky one. Takes a weird bounce off a stick, off a skate and through ‘Binner’ and just a bit of a collapse on the second one and all of the sudden you’re down 2-0 and then I thought we came out good again in the second, a couple power plays that didn’t convert, but our 5-on-5 game was good. I think the shots (shot attempts) were heavy in our favor (61-49). Just couldn’t find a way to get one and they get another power play goal and once it’s down three, it’s hard to climb out of that. There’s a lot of good things we can build off of but also a lot of things to fix, which is pretty normal this time of year.”
But the thing that has to be remembered here, is if the Blues (0-1-0), who begin their first road trip of the season with a visit on Saturday against the Calgary Flames (1-1-0) in a matinee affair (3 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), as coach Jim Montgomery pointed out, teams that want to be good, don’t allow these things to snowball and catapult into multiple losses.
That’s why in the Flames’ home opener, they have to show that they’re ready to go and be at their best early.
“I want to see a dogged determination tomorrow where there’s almost a scowl on your face when the game begins because you’re not happy with the way it started,” Montgomery said after practice before the team departed for a trip that ends against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday. “Any team that wants to be really good in this league, losing two in a row isn’t something you accept or even tolerate. So the start of tomorrow’s game is going to be really important to see where we’re at in that process.”
“That’s something we’ve got to get used to because this year, it’s a lot of play, day off, play, day off,” Neighbours said. “It doesn’t matter if you have a stinky game, you lose the game, whatever, you’ve got to take the night to be pissed off, wake up the next day and practice with a good attitude and get ready to compete the next day. It’s going to be a lot of that this year. There’s no time for sitting around feeling sorry for yourself or whatever it may be. We deal with the loss, we looked at the video, corrected the things we need to correct, now we go up against Calgary and get our game back where it needs to be.”
And a lot of work on Friday included the one area that the Wild, which was outshot 26-21 by the Blues and out-Corsied 61-49 for the game, had a huge edge in: net front presence. A lot of the drills included guys going to the net and doing it in any way or fashion, easy or hard, and it’s usually never easy.
So what is it?
“It’s a mindset to go there,” Neighbours said. “Everybody’s got to do it. If it’s your turn to go to the net, if you’re the closest guy, you’ve got to get there. There’s a lot of good things about our game last night but one of the most important things is the net front, so we weren’t good enough there.”
Montgomery also said that, “we worked on that and we worked on speed in our D-zone coverage. I thought we were giving up too much time and space unnecessarily. We always want to protect the most vital ice, which is the middle of the ice, but everyone should know where it’s their area to go and be the first layer of pressure.
“… We have a mentality. We want to get pucks back in three seconds, so it doesn’t matter if it’s from offense or if the other team did a good defensive play, we still want to get it back in three seconds.”
The Blues will go into this game playing some good, young players, including Jimmy Snuggerud and Logan Mailloux, guys who are just getting their feet wet in the NHL. But to nip losses in the bud, it will come down to the big boys.
“It’s got to be (Brayden) Schenn, (Robert) Thomas, (Jordan) Kyrou, (Pavel) Buchnevich, (Dylan) Holloway and then on the back end, it’s got to be (Colton) Parayko, (Justin) Faulk, (Cam) Fowler and (Philip) Broberg,” Montgomery said. “Those are the guys that have got to lead the way. They’ve got to grab the bull by the horns. And the goaltenders.”
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Speaking of Mailloux, who made his Blues regular season debut Thursday and had a shaky game being a minus-2 and showing his first-game Blues jitters (ninth NHL game overall) playing 14:12, this will be the process of developing a young defenseman who shows the tools of being steady but with experience.
“Good moments and moments where he needs to mature his game and just make the game a little simpler,” Montgomery said. “The way the NHL works is (a) goalie takes the longest to develop to be elite, then it’s defensemen. Forwards take the least amount of time because they have the least amount of responsibility because when they make a mistake, there’s another four or three layers before something bad happens. Where as when you’re a defenseman, there’s only the goalie to back you up.”
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Montgomery will update the lineup at 1:45 p.m. (CT) prior to the game, but forward Alexey Toropchenko (upper-, lower-body soreness) did not practice on Friday and is listed as questionable for the game.
Mathieu Joseph was skating in Toropchenko’s spot on the fourth line, and Alexandre Texier could make his season debut after skating with Neighbours and Pius Suter.
“I think we’re all different,” Texier said. “I think ‘Sutes’ is pretty smart in the middle. Obviously Jake is going to win those 1-on-1 battles and be in front of the net. I’m going to use my speed too.
“We’ll see. It’s just one practice. We’ll see tomorrow. Obviously it’s a good combination and I’m going to be excited.”
* UPDATE -- Toropchenko is out, Texier is in.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Jake Neighbours-Pius Suter-Alexandre Texier
Mathieu Joseph-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Logan Mailloux
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Matthew Kessel. Oskar Sundqvist (lower body) and Alexey Toropchenko (upper, lower body soreness) are out.
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Flames Projected Lineup:
Matvei Gridin-Nazem Kadri-Matt Coronato
Joel Farabee-Morgan Frost-Yegor Sharangovich
Samuel Honzek-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg-Connor Zary-Adam Klapka
Joel Hanley-MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl-Rasmus Andersson
Brayden Pachal-Zayne Parekh
Dustin Wolf is projected to start in goal; Devin Cooley would be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Justin Kirkland, Jake Bean and Daniil Miromanov. Jonathan Huberdeau (undisclosed) and Martin Pospisil (undisclosed) are out.