Observations From Blues' 5-2 Loss Vs. Red Wings

ST. LOUIS – It can get worse before it gets better, right?

Well, the St. Louis Blues are proving that theory right.

Things continue to plummet for the Blues right now. The latest evidence came in the form of a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Enterprise Center on Tuesday, three days after succumbing to the Red Wings, 6-4, in Detroit when they coughed up a 4-0 lead.

The loss was the Blues’ fifth straight (0-4-1) and dropped them to 3-6-1 overall, and it was another game in which they allowed a plethora of goals. That’s now 24 goals allowed the past four games (six per game) and 26 during the losing skid (5.2 per game), having been outscored 26-14.

“I’m not sure honestly,” Blues defenseman Cam Fowler said when asked what’s happening right now. “It’s been a tough stretch I’m not sure you can point to one thing in particular, but it’s a long season and it’s up to us to dig ourselves out of it and try and support each other and just find a way to keep pushing forward.

“I think we’re disappointed, we’re frustrated with some of the results we’ve been getting. Listen, it’s a hard league, it’s competitive every single night and if you’re not on your ‘A’ game and doing things the right way, then things can get away from you. We expect a lot better, so that part is surprising to us, but we’ve got to just dig in and find a way to claw out of it. That’s the only option that we have.”

Brayden Schenn scored in the first minute of the game, and Jordan Kyrou extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, four assists) with a third-period goal, and Jordan Binnington only faced 19 shots but allowed four goals.

Let’s look at tonight’s game observations:

* The team looks lost right now – Fumbled pucks, miscommunication, off the mark passing, inconsistent forechecking, not staying connected, not tightening up the ice … you name it, the Blues are all over the wrong habits.

It was on cue again here and once the Red Wings (7-3-0) were able to tie the game, and forge ahead 2-1 late in the first period, there was no sense this group would come back, even down a goal.

“We gave up the two goals after the 1-0 lead. I thought we had a lull in the first period,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.

There was a careless offensive zone holding penalty on Dylan Holloway with 51 seconds left in the period. I’ve propped up Holloway from the moment he stepped through those doors in a Blues jersey, but he has had his blips this season, and that was one of them and for a fragile team, it cost them dearly in that moment.

Alex Debrincat was tipping in a Moritz Seider wrister from the high slot with 35.7 left in the period and a good start to the game was now wiped out.

* Second-period lapses put game out of reach – As usual, the Blues would push to begin the period, they had their moments and chances to get pucks to the net, but a team lacking confidence second-guesses on shooting, making the correct play, the correct read.

Detroit’s third goal is a prime example of execution, and defensemen Colton Parayko, who by the way got his 300th point with an assist to join Al MacInnis (452 points), Alex Pietrangelo (450) and Chris Pronger (356) as the only Blues defenseman in franchise history to reach 300 or more points, threw a puck from behind his net off the wall that got picked off, the puck was back in the Blues’ end, Philip Broberg ices it, the Blues lose the face-off back to the left point, Simon Edvinsson slots a seam pass to Larkin for a one-time chip goal at 11:14 of the second period to make it 3-1:

Again, it’s puck management that’s sorely lacking.

“That’s part of the game management that we’re talking about,” Montgomery said. “We’re not protecting the ice that we’re valuing the most. We like to protect the middle of the ice, we like to attack the middle of the ice and defensively, we don’t give up a lot and then all of the sudden, we give up a chance.”

And on Elmer Soderblom’s goal 1:42 later that made it 4-1, the Red Wings forward could have pitched a tent in the crease, he was so wide open, and he was wide open because Nathan Walker, who also took an ill-advised, poorly-timed penalty at 8:13 of the period that Montgomery said lost their momentum, vacated the slot to go help Logan Mailloux, who had Michael Rasmussen perfectly tied up behind the net, and leave Soderblom all alone while Tyler Tucker was properly covering the opposite side for any backside plays:

“Like the fourth goal, the guy’s standing in the blue paint all alone,” Montgomery said. ‘We’ve just got to continue right now and things aren’t going your way. The first two goals are deflection goals. I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen this many defection goals go against any team I’ve coached before. We’ve got to do a better job controlling sticks so that we make life a little easier on our goaltenders here because we play good hockey in stretches and we don’t give up much and all of the sudden, bang! It was 2-1 and I think ‘Binner’ made two breakaway saves.

“Second period, I thought we started off really dominant the first 10 minutes and we took the penalty. We killed it off, but we lost momentum. Why we aren’t able to sustain the rhythm and the fluidity of the way we want to play has been very frustrating. It’s been like that since the start of the year.”

Robert Thomas (upper body, day to day) and Jake Neighbours (right leg injury, reevaluated in five weeks) are not on the ice right now, so no need to feel sorry for themselves. Someone else has to step up, and it's just not happening right now.

The Blues are getting outworked in all three zones, and the results speak for themselves.

* Where’s the third period push? -- It was simply befuddling how the Blues could go the first 13:11 – it was a Nick Bjugstad wrister from the right circle – without a shot on goal down three goals.

Where’s the urgency? Where’s the push? Where’s the swarming, relentless play to at least give a semblance of trying to get back into the game.

It’s one of the reasons why fans were left with sarcastic mocks and cheers and questioning the team’s effort level.

“Guys come to the rink every night ... yeah we can play better defensively and not make so many mistakes, but guys care,” Schenn said. “That's our jobs. We're very lucky to do what we do. I think guys realize that and understand that.

“Obviously the fans, they can be as frustrated at us as they want and they have every right to because at the end of the day, we're not getting the job done and right now our job is to find a way. We can't look big picture right now. We’ve got to find a way to get one win and play for the guy next to you and buckle down and build a little inner confidence for yourself and for the team.”

It all stems from a lack of confidence, which is something the players need to dig deep and find and the coaching staff provide the proper guidance.

“Just by preaching habits and the work ethic needed,” Montgomery said. ‘I’ve said this many times, when a goal scorer doesn’t score and he starts to press, the first thing he does is stops working and he just thinks about results and I think that’s happening to us a little bit as a team. We start the game off great, we’re in their end, we’re attacking their net, they get a deflection goal and boom, we don’t get back to that energy level that we had just previously. And you’ve got to be able to battle through it. Every team usually has a portion of their season where they go through this and you end up being better once you go through it, but going through it is painful, as it is for our fans, as it is for our ownership, and for us in the room.”

* Start was exactly what Blues wanted, needed – Another befuddling point is that the Blues got the start they wanted – unlike Monday in a 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins when they were down 2-0 just 56 seconds in – when Schenn, who tried to get Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot to drop the gloves at the drop of the puck, beat Chiarot to a loose puck that caromed off Parayko coming down the slot and scoring 47 seconds in for a 1-0 Blues lead:

How they couldn’t build on that is remarkable.

“We did have a good start,” Schenn said. ‘Guys care, guys were trying, guys want to win. Obviously we know guys are battling their own confidence issues right now. That’s just not from points. That’s from when you win, and guys want to win. You come to the rink expecting to win every night and you’re not getting the results, it’s tough on everyone. No one wants to deal with that. What I do know is this game humbles you, and we’re getting humbled right now. We have to battle adversity and I know this isn’t permanent and we have to dig in and find ways to get out of it. The best part of this game is you get to come to the rink tomorrow and find a way to get better as a team, or individually.

“… You’ve got to come to the rink and play with passion and emotion and find different ways to spark yourself individually, find a way to spark the team. It’s all part of my game, it’s all part of hockey. At the end of the day, I was trying to get a response and that’s all it was.”

Schenn, who fought Travis Hamonic at 7:35 of the period, did his part to inspire the crowd and bring energy into the building.

“I thought the energy was there,” Fowler said. “I think if you look at over the stretch, we’re trying to do the right things. Everybody in here cares. It’s more about the execution and I think some of the lapses that we’ve had have really cost us over this stretch here. Our guys did a great job getting off to a good start. Our captain, big goal and a big fight for us, so the energy was there. At that point, it’s just about execution and keeping ourselves in the hockey game. That part just got away from us tonight. That’s something that’s been happening over this last little stretch that we’ve had.”

Montgomery agreed.

“Brayden Schenn is doing everything he can,” he said. ‘He cares so much as a captain and trying to help everybody else, that at times it affects his own energy levels in the game. But you love it because he does care that much. We need everybody to care and work as much as our captain, we’re going to be fine.”

* Pavel Buchnevich, other veterans need to play better – The stat line says it all for Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich: no points, one shot on goal, minus-2 with 18:22 of ice time.

There was a specific play on the power play in the second period in which the Blues, who seem to focus on getting the veteran the puck in the bumper and teams are reading it and breaking them up, got one of those passes, and when you get it in the bumper, that puck almost needs to be off your stick before you even get it.

Remember how good Zack Bolduc was there last year? Scored a lot from those dishes.

Buchnevich got one through and it was almost like he didn’t know whether to shoot, hold it or make another dish. The puck was poked away and out of the zone.

Earlier in the game, Jimmy Snuggerud gave Buchnevich a perfect pass to redirect in the first period, but the blade wasn’t on the ice firm enough and it was pushed wide. And then there was a potential for a 2-on-1 with Schenn at the O-zone blue line where Buchnevich telegraphed a pass that was broken up and nothing came of it instead of taking the puck in strong and either shooting or making a play:

I’ve said the veterans on this team need to be held accountable and this is one of them. Buchnevich’s play has simply not been good enough. Tuesday was another reason why this team is in the funk it’s in.

That goes for Parayko and Fowler, who admitted his play hasn’t been good enough.

“Losses are going to be frustrating no matter what, but it’s the way that we’re losing, feeling like some nights we’re leaving our goaltenders out to dry,” Fowler said. “Since I’ve been here, the brand of hockey that we play, this is just not the kind of hockey that we’re used to playing around here. And I’m including myself in all that. We’re in this together, so we have to find a way to dig ourselves out of it. You look at the last four, five games, I don’t know what the goals-against average is (5.2 over five games), but it’s got to be high. All of us feel that in here. We have to look in the mirror and work together to try and find a solution because it doesn’t get any easier. We’re playing every other night. We’ve got to find a way to dig in here and support one another.”

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