Let's just say that this one was over, it seems, before it started.
The St. Louis Blues were soundly thumped by the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-1, on Tuesday at Amalie Arena, the first loss for interim coach Drew Bannister.
The Blues (15-15-1) were listless, disinterested and flawed from the get-go, and the Lightning (15-13-5) came out with a plan to attack the Blues early and often and to get to and around the net as often as possible.
It's pretty easy there were no keys to the positive here tonight, so let's take a look at the three keys as to why the Blues faltered:
1. Another poor start -- It's happened far too often and Bannister now knows how former coach Craig Berube feels. It was another start to a game in which the Blues had no jam, no alertness, no responsibility.
They got away with it Saturday when the Dallas Stars jumped on them for two early first-period goals before the Blues rallied for their first win when down by multiple goals, 4-3 in overtime.
It wasn't going to happen here.
The Lightning were in, around and all over the Blues, who did a better job of playing hot potato with the puck than play responsibly with it. Before you knew it, they were down 3-0 and outshot 14-4 and out-attempted 28-13.
Ouch.
They're now minus-7 scoring in the first period, and as you are all aware, first-period leads trend higher towards winning hockey at the end of the night.
2. Unwilling to get in shooting lanes -- Both of Nikita Kucherov's goals came as a result of the Russian smartly putting pucks towards the net.
Each time, the Blues simply didn't get in the shooting lanes with either their sticks or bodies to block shots.
One, Jordan Binnington didn't see, and on the second, he was fooled into perhaps thinking a high wrister was coming, only to get beat five-hole. But both goals came from distance.
And on another Hayden Fleury -- who hasn't scored in like a year -- threw a shot from the left point that, again, nobody was willing to block, and Binnington had no idea where it was or where it came from, ending his night allowing five goals on 23 shots.
When teams can establish zone time and see the opposition doesn't have it in them on a particular night to sacrifice the body, it's easy to recognize to simply funnel pucks towards the net any way possible.
3. Failing to take bodies away from crease -- Tampa's first two goals came as a result of a lack of attrition.
Simply put, they were up 2-0 on goals by the Lightning's third- and fourth-liners who were more than willing to get bodies to the net, the crease, the blue paint, anywhere to disrupt Binnington's ability to see pucks.
Michael Eyssimont outmuscled Tyler Tucker at the net on a goal that was a bad bounce past Binnington trying to play a puck behind the net but it caromed in off the Tampa forward when he got position on Tucker, who had the chance to take his man out of the play, and on Tyler Motte's goal, multiple Blues surrounded the crease but nobody paid the price to eliminate a body or keep the puck free and clear from their crease for an easy tap-in.
