ST. LOUIS -- If it wasn't bad enough for the Blues in the last week or so, Monday was the tip of the iceberg.
And the fans have finally had enough. Who can blame them? The boos were loud and clear at times, others were subdued due to the shock of watching such poor play.
These Blues are giving them every reason to boo them off the ice, however, which is what happened Monday following another lackluster defeat, 5-1 against the Los Angeles Kings at Enterprise Center.
I'm not sure there were 17,220 in the building tonight, which was the registered number for attendance, but if there were, they would have been better off taking their kids trick or treating instead of watching another disaster develop on ice that dropped the Blues to 3-5-0 on the season with their fifth straight loss, being outscored 25-8.
It was more of the same that's been plaguing the Blues in this recent stretch: poor puck play, not playing connected, turnovers, poor coverage, passing up scoring opportunities, missing the mark when they get them, and worst of all, which players admitted afterwards: lack of effort.
When the words 'lack of effort' get tossed around, now we have a problem. It's one thing to get beat on the ice when you're giving it your all and the other team just beats you on a given night, which happens often in the NHL, or any sport for that matter, but when effort comes into question, that's a problem, and the fan base here is intelligent enough to realize it.
The Blues, who gave up three straight backdoor tap-in goals, much to the shock and chagrin of those watching, were booed during the second period, at the conclusion of the period and from those that were brave enough to stick out the final horn at the end.
This is what it has come to, but deservedly so from a loyal fanbase wanting, and expecting, much more.
"I can say it and they can see it, it's kind of a piss-poor effort from us the last couple games," defenseman Justin Faulk said. "We have leads, we're down one today going into the second period and just kind of lay an egg. There's no reason for it. The other team's trying to win and if you can give them an inch, they can tell and obviously Montreal saw it the other night (a 7-4 loss Saturday). They saw we sat back and didn't want to play a hard game and they took it over. LA did the same thing here.
"Yeah, (they're) holding us accountable. You can say it's a bad feeling, but at the same time, you have to appreciate it. You want people to hold you accountable, right? You don't want to be somewhere where they let you slide and think it's OK and then you just keep going and stick and stay in that rut. Accountability's huge and we need it and the fans are more than deserving to boo us tonight."
Let's delve deeper into this before we get into the, what Faulk called a "piss-poor effort," especially on defense.
Let's take into account the Blues' top-end players, who coach Craig Berube called out Monday after the game.
Let's look at the production of, fair to include them or not, and I will single out those that don't deserve the criticism but are included just to make the numbers work, those that make the most money and garner the most responsibilities on this team:
Ryan O'Reilly -- $6 million base salary, $7.5 million cap hit: one goal in eight games, minus-11.
Vladimir Tarasenko -- $5.5 million base salary, $7.5 million cap hit: three goals, four assists in eight games, minus-1. His production has been tolerable.
Brayden Schenn -- $5.2 million base salary, $6.5 million cap hit: two goals, seven assists, tied for the team lead in points but minus-7. His production is deemed tolerable.
Pavel Buchnevich -- $5.5 million base salary, $5.8 million cap hit: one goal, one assist in three games, plus-1. Lack of games played due to injury makes him exempt.
Jordan Kyrou -- $3.2 million base salary, $2.8 million cap hit on last year of bridge contract before $9 million base salary and $8.125 million cap hit kicks in next season: three goals, team-worst minus-13.
Robert Thomas -- $3.2 million base salary, $2.8 million cap hit on last year of bridge contract before $9 million base salary and $8.125 million cap hit kicks in next season: one goal, five assists, minus-3.
Faulk -- $5.85 million base salary, $6.5 million cap hit: three goals, six assists, tied for team lead in points and goals scored, minus-2. His production is tolerable.
Torey Krug -- $8 million base salary, $6.5 million cap hit: one goal, two assists, minus-10.
Colton Parayko -- $7.25 million base salary, $6.5 million cap hit: two assists, minus-6.
Nick Leddy -- $5 million base salary, $4 million cap hit: two assists, minus-4.
Let's add those figures up, including those I've deemed to be playing up to standards. That's $54.7 million in base salary and $56.4 million in cap hits and the Blues have 15 goals and 29 assists from those 10 players but a combined minus-56.
Take Schenn, Faulk and Tarasenko out of the equation, and that's $38.15 million in base salary and $35.9 million in cap hits to produce seven goals and 12 assists with a minus-46. Remove Buchnevich from this because if his lack of games and injury, it's $32.65 million in salary, $30.1 million in cap hits for six goals, 11 assists and minus-47.
Get the picture here? But it's simply not nearly good enough to mask over the defensive deficiencies that are glaring right now.
"We're not direct. And if you're not direct, and you're not predictable, and you're not hungry, and you're not desperate out there, if you don't want to dig in and play hard, you're going to get beat," coach Craig Berube said. "I don't care what team you're playing. You'll get beat. And that's got to change.
"I think we're getting a lot of effort from (the bottom six forwards). Our top guys, they've got to dig in. They're not digging in enough. They're too soft, they're not direct enough. They're not north enough. They're not going to the net enough. They're not checking hard enough."
What you saw on Monday was the Kings score three -- yes, three! -- goals on simple backdoor plays that weren't properly defended. One as a result of a failed connection in the offensive zone between Schenn and Kyrou on a drop pass that Kyrou just fumbled, then Krug doesn't cover the backdoor play; the second was a result of Calle Rosen not covering the backdoor play, and the third, and maybe most inexplicable one, came after Kyrou completely flubbed a 3-on-0 breakaway -- hard to explain how -- when he doesn't even get a shot off nor makes a play to O'Reilly or Schenn, and Parayko gets beat on the backdoor play by Anze Kopitar, rendering Jordan Binnington, who got the mercy pull after allowing five goals on 19 shots, helpless again.
The Blues are soft in front of their net, and the opposition knows it. It knows it can pitch a tent in front of Binnington or Thomas Greiss with no repercussions. They can bully their way to the front of the Blues' backbone and break it down with no recourse for punishment, and that's a big problem.
"We just need to compete," Faulk said. "It's not much, not enough effort from our group and that's the bottom line. We need to find ways to get the energy to just compete, that's all there is to it. There's nothing else. Turnovers, whatever else there is, it all stems from not playing a hard enough game.
"Just the same thing. We're not competing. It's not enough guys on the puck, not enough support. Guys aren't winning battles and then if they do, we're getting beat to loose pucks. Just got to go back to the basics and come with the work ethic and go from there.
"We can't ask the goalies to make backdoor saves. It's unrealistic. We have to be better as a group of six. Again, you've got to be a lot harder, a lot more competitive there and not give them an easy one to the net."
Schenn echoed those sentiments.
"I don’t need to give you a long-winded answer," he said. "It comes down three or four things. Our complete level, our willingness to work, forecheck and winning battles and playing D-zone. It’s kind of what it comes down to. It’s not rocket science by any means. It’s three or four things that we have to correct. And correct them fast.
"You 've got to realize how tough it is to win in this league. And I don’t think we realize that right now."
They looked lifeless, played lifeless, and made their fans watch lifelessly.
"That's a good term," Berube said. "We got outworked and outskated. Not hungry enough, not desperate enough.
"They've got to find a way, they've got to dig in and they've got to go to work. They've got to want to dig in and play a lot harder than that."
Isn't that the truth.
But right now, it's not happening, and I'm not sure exactly why. Are these players trying to push for a change at the top? I've seen this pattern before, once with Ken Hitchcock, and again with Mike Yeo. Maybe I'm on par here, maybe I'm not, but it sure looks like it all over again, and it's hard to understand how a player turns a deaf ear on a coach that helped him win a Stanley Cup just three short years ago. But this is sport, and these things happen everywhere, fair or not.
Or maybe it's just the Blues aren't as good as they think they are. Because they sure think they are good and playing like they don't need to work for their ice and not producing nearly like they could be, or should be. Maybe this is just a cast of overpriced, overhyped group of underachievers.
Doug Armstrong, who made the slow, deliberate walk downstairs after the game Monday, is paying this roster to play up to a certain standard. Right now, they're barely earning minimum wage for their contributions, and that's giving them the benefit of the doubt, which they probably don't deserve.
What's evident is there's no buy-in whatsoever. There's too much individualistic play going on and the connectivity is sorely lacking.
"Yeah, I see a lot of guys," Berube said, without naming names. "I mean, our team in general. I'm not going to point to certain individuals, the team. Right now that includes everybody."
Fans are paying good money to watch a product perform, and Blues fans don't necessarily always expect the results in their favor. They do expect effort.
"I mean, you want to be held accountable," Schenn said. "They show up at the rink every night and they cheer us on. Full barn. And to have a week of hockey like that, when a team that’s not trying to find a way to win, we expect to win in this locker room every night. There’s 20 guys that go out there, we’re just not getting the job done right now. So we need to be held accountable and they have every right to boo us and be hard on us right now. And we deserve it."
The solution isn't that difficult: play better, and just play harder, because at the moment, the Blues are not and it's evident by their efforts, or lack thereof.
"Just work hard. It's really all it is," Faulk said. "Like I said earlier, got to get back to basics and compete and work. You can draw up all the X's and O's, coaches can do that, but it doesn't matter if guys aren't going to show up and put in the work ethic. That's the only way out. Put your head down and work and compete. When you do that, your teammates rally, they see it, it brings a little bit of energy, it starts getting things rolling in the right direction."
One thing the veterans don't lack on this team is confidence, and it's got to -- it better -- help them break the bad cycle going on.
"Oh, we’re confident. We’re confident," Schenn said. "It’s a tough slide. I don’t know if I’ve been part of one here. It’s kind of unlike Blues hockey. We've got to dig in, but we have the guys in this locker room to dig through this. It’s a tight league. There’s really not too many teams that have been off to great starts. Everyone beats everyone. Everyone’s around .500.
"We’ve falling below that now but we feel in this locker room we can dig in deep and turn this around."