Three keys in Blues' 8-3 loss against Predators
ST. LOUIS -- Another game, another common theme when it comes to the St. Louis Blues.
They've played 19 games this season, and all but four of them have been tight games.
That held true to form again on Friday, and again, they were on the receiving end of a blitzing, this time by the Nashville Predators, 8-3, at Enterprise Center on Friday.
It started poorly, again, ended with some promise in the ladder stages of the first period even though it looked bleak for the Blues (10-8-1) and once again, they stubbed their toes at the start of the second and it snowballed into an avalanche.
Let's dive into the three keys that led to this result:
1. Mistakes were compounded -- It was another game when the opposition scores first, they tend to add on, and there would be no answer from the Blues.
It's happened often this season, and it happened again on Friday.
"I liked our start the first five, six minutes," Blues coach Craig Berube said.
And then Nashville scored at 6:57, and again at 7:25 and suddenly, it was 2-0. And the Predators would score again at 13:53, and it was 3-0.
"I think we just got to be mentally tougher. It's going to happen," Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said. "We can't, if we get scored on first or second too, make us change our game. The game plan stays the same. It has to. We have to play out the whole 60 minutes. Leads change all the time. It is what it is. Stats probably say the team that scores first has the better chance, but it's not every night and you've got to just buy in and go, play a hard game. We've been having trouble with, like you said, once the first one goes, it seems to be a few more than we'd like."
And even when Pavel Buchnevich made it 3-1 late in the first period, the Blues had momentum. They had 18 shots on goal in the first and a push would put them right back in this game. But it never materialized.
They started taking penalties, forcing the issue, and before they knew it, it was 4-1, then 5-1, 6-1. Game over.
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"We just came out flat again in the second period that they pounced on right away," Faulk said. "They didn't give us a chance. That's what good teams do over time. Getting that one back was nice, there were some chances, but I don't think the energy from the first period was there to get us going there for the second."
2. Poor puck play -- For the Blues to have success, they have to manage the puck properly.
Well, eight goals later, it's safe to say that didn't happen. And Berube said it.
"Puck play and puck battles for me were not very good today," Berube said.
They mismanaged the puck on Nashville's third goal that resulted in a fortuitous bounce for Luke Evangelista, but teams create their own breaks, and the Predators did. The Blues got skating around, lost containment after not managing the puck and it was in their net.
Same thing on the fourth goal, when a puck was played up quickly by Marco Scandella, Kevin Hayes' backhand sauce to Alexey Toropchenko backside was too far and off the mark. Now the Blues had three forwards committed at or neat the goal line while puck was moving back the other way for an odd-man rush and goal.
And then there was a failed clear by Brayden Schenn at the tail end of a Nashville power play that led to a goal.
Those kinds of plays were some of the prime examples of puck management biting the Blues.
3. Subpar goaltending -- It's tough to pick on goaltending, since that's been a strength of the Blues this season, but Joel Hofer was pulled after allowing four goals on 15 shots, marking the third time in five games and second straight that either he or Jordan Binnington have been pulled from a game.
Call it unlucky, call it not closing the play out, but Nashville's first two goals came as a result of Hofer thinking he had a puck covered but it was loose and in the net.
"They're in the same boat as our team right now," Berube said. "We don't like giving up these goals and they don't like giving them up either. So it's a team thing and goalies are a part of it. So we've all got to be better, goalies included."
Meanwhile at the other end, Predators backup Kevin Lankinen made 36 saves and became the fourth backup goalie to beat the Blues this season already, joining Connor Ingram (Arizona Coyotes), Ivan Prosvetov (Colorado Avalanche) and Kappo Kahkonen (San Jose Sharks).
