ST. LOUIS -- Less than two weeks ago, the Blues were a sinking ship.
One could have compared them to the Titanic, bludgeoning into the deep waters with no escaping the inevitable.
A franchise record eight-game regulation losing streak plummeted the Blues to the bottom of the NHL with just six points. There was no place to go but up.
Well, here we are, 13 days later after that ill-felt loss in Philadelphia, and the Blues have completely flipped this script, winning their seventh in a row after downing the Anaheim Ducks for the second time in three days, 3-1 on Monday at Enterprise Center.
What they did was pretty remarkable in setting an NHL record for consecutive wins after losing eight or more consecutive games. The Philadelphia Flyers (Nov. 11-Dec. 2, 2017) and San Jose Sharks (Nov. 5-30, 2005) each lost 10 straight before winning six consecutive games.
The simple question begs the answer: How is this possible?
How has this team, which was outscored 38-12 during their losing streak, flipped things around like this? And so quickly?
They were last in goals for at the time, ranking near the bottom of the league in goals allowed. Their special teams, as general manager Doug Armstrong said at one point, "aren't special." They were making the simplest, most generic mistakes on the ice whether it be puck management in their zone, one-and-done's in the offensive zone and hanging out their goalies to dry on most nights.
What it does is it drags the confidence down to a very low point, so how did this team keep the faith?
Pretty simple.
"I think we know we're a good team and we're relentless," said center Noel Acciari, who scored twice on Monday, including the empty-netter with 19 seconds remaining to seal the win. "We just didn't give up on each other. We found our stride and we're going to keep trying to stick with that and keep getting better.
"I think the pucks have started going the right way. We're starting to get some bounces and I think the confidence for some guys (is) starting to come back from that eight-game skid. Things are clicking, but there's still some things we need to work on. We knew they were going to give us our best and we were able to stick with the game and get a win there."
Remember the dreadful 5-1 loss against the Los Angeles Kings, when fans were booing the players off the ice and Justin Faulk, who scored the go-ahead power-play goal with 4:13 remaining to put the Blues ahead 2-1, questioned the team's effort level, along with several other players? That script had flipped for the better, and according to coach Craig Berube, that was the engine that started to tilt the tides in the right direction.
Guys have not relied so much on the pond style of hockey, playing east-west and being more direct with it. The north-south play is much more evident.
"That's the guys. They dug in and started doing things the right way and getting that team game going ... on the ice," Berube said. "That's the biggest thing for me. It really boils down to again how you play the game. Our puck battle has been extremely high in this run, even starting before that. Competitive. It's just about your puck play. Not making careless plays on the puck; it's so important in this game. I get it, you want to make plays and there's plays to be made, but it's understanding the situation, it's understanding the pressure that's there. It's so important."
The Blues have outscored the opposition 29-16, averaging 4.1 goals per game, a far cry from the 1.5 per game they scored in losing eight straight, while allowing only 2.3 per game, as opposed to allowing 4.8.
Those numbers are a direct result of putting in the necessary work, effort and execution.
"I think we're committed to the details of the game, working hard, making it tougher on an opponent," Faulk said. "And I think kind of two sides of it there in the first period tonight, you saw when we weren't committed to it. We weren't taking care of the puck and working hard without it. They had the momentum and kind of took it to us during the first period and then we were able to do the opposite there in the second and that's the game we want to play and it puts a lot of pressure on the other teams. That's the style we try and have around here and it's tough on them. And we don't want anyone to have an easy night, and that's really what we're trying to build."
The goaltending from Jordan Binnington, who has won six straight starts, and Thomas Greiss has always been there, and Binnington has been a rock, going 6-0-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and .940 save percentage, and even he's seeing the results of the skaters pay off.
"That’s hockey. You stay with it. You keep fighting," Binnington said. "We were trying and it just wasn’t clicking. We’re just putting in a lot of good work, and we've got to maintain that and keep pushing hard. Just having that goal and vision in our mind, and we just keep working.
"And I think it comes down to work. And that brings us together. And makes us tougher, and that’ll be my outlook."
The Blues didn't look at streaks, per say, to get themselves out of it. It sounds simple, it sounds cliche-ish, but they looked at the next game, and it started Nov. 8 with a 5-3 win over San Jose, and they've just continued climbing that ladder one step at a time.
"For sure. It’s one game at a time, one day at a time," Binnington said. "It’s a tighter game (vs. Anaheim) than I think we wanted. We've got to recognize that and just stay on ourselves and remind ourselves that it’s a really hard league and nothing’s going to be easy. We've got to keep that focus."
"I don't think a streak has even been brought up in the locker room," Acciari said. "We're just focused on that next game and how we want to play and how we want to come out. Obviously we want to win the game, but I don't think the streak's even been talked about."
One step at a time, one brick at a time.
"Absolutely. I think each game we do something a little better," Acciari said. "Obviously we're not going to be perfect in any games, but those little areas we want to fix up and kind of focus on and get better for the next one."
Having positive reinforcements from a coaching staff that was certainly under pressure to help the players perform at a higher level. It's easy for the fan base to want changes, and they certainly did at the time, from firing the coach to auctioning off the players, but Berube said drilling the belief that things will turn around was important.
"You just keep working and trying and grinding," the coach said. "As a coach and a player, that's what you do, you work your way out of it. It's not just going to be given to you, it's not just going to happen. We've got a good team here, there's good players so I knew eventually we'd turn around at some point."
The Stanley Cup champion team in 2018-19 went through some similar circumstances, and we all saw how that turned out. Nobody wants to go through a losing streak such as the Blues endured, but with how positive things have turned, and how quickly they've turned, perhaps this experience will go a long way in testing this team's mettle as the season progresses.
"I don't know, maybe, I'm not sure," Berube said. "I don't have the answer for that. We went through a lot of adversity, that's for sure."
"When you're winning it's fun and everyone's having fun and things are going right, we're playing for each other," Acciari said. "I think it's a good recipe for success."
Now to truly erase the 'Ugly 8,' a win Wednesday at Buffalo would give them a 'Great 8.'