When Jim Montgomery was asked about why sometimes fear brings out the best in players. “Because like even fear of losing brings out the best in you, because you pay more attention to detail, you think about … you’re preparing to stay in the moment because you’re afraid of fear of losing or fear of being embarrassed creates the same thing,” the St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] coach said. “There’s urgency in everything you do and we haven’t had enough urgency as a group and I understand everything I’m saying points directly at me. I lead this team and I take full ownership of my part in us not having hit the standard that I believe we should be at.” Well, the Blues forgot the memo of being embarrassed. Because on New Year’s Eve, they were embarrassed, bludgeoned, bamboozled, whatever one wants to call it. Tony Duke said it best when he was vehemently looking at Rocky Balboa in the film Rocky IV to “Throw the Damn Towel.” The Blues didn’t even have to drop the puck, because it would have been better to ‘Throw the Damn Towel’ before the puck was even dropped because the Blues were overwhelmed in the game’s first five minutes, and the Colorado Avalanche [http://thn.com/colorado] played true to form with their team name, putting up an avalanche of goals early and blitzed the Blues, 6-1, on Wednesday at Ball Arena in Denver. It was literally over before it started, as the Blues (15-18-8) once again failed to start a game, and against the team that is far and beyond the best team in the NHL right now (30-2-7) and they made the Blues look like mince meat. Dalibor Dvorsky did score for the Blues in the third period, which was all the offense the Blues got. Let’s look at tonight’s game observations (and this will be brief, I can promise you): * It was over before it started (almost) – The Avalanche are a well-oiled machine, and if you’re not ready to play against them, you can look like a fool. Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin made sure of it, as far as the Blues were concerned. Each player scored twice in the game’s first 4:39. Whether it was poor coverage, a lack of protecting their own net, a neutral zone turnover and then not making up for it by covering your ground on the other end, five guys backing into the zone and allowing the Avalanche to dangle the puck on a string. That pretty much encapsulated each of the Colorado goals. And that was that. All I can say is poor Jordan Binnington, who once again had a team in front of him fail him miserably on the day he got named to Canada’s Winter Olympic squad. It was so bad that at one point, the Avalanche were up 4-0 and outshooting the Blues 14-0 before the Blues even got their first shot – SHOT – on goal, and it was a Jimmy Snuggerud one-timer that needed a terrific Mackenzie Blackwood save. It took the Blues more than 35 minutes(!) into the game to have more shots than the Avalanche had goals. That’s surreal even to type in, but it was true. The final shot clock total finished 43-13 and shot attempts finished 79-28. Ouch. Jordan Kyrou’s quick one-timer at the back post off a Robert Thomas pass was the Blues’ sixth shot of the game more than 35 minutes into the game. Colorado led 5-0 at the time. This is the kind of game that shows you that the Blues are closer to the bottom of the standings than they are to the playoffs, even though they end the calendar year just three points out of a wild card in the Western Conference. But let’s be serious here. Do you want to finish as the second wild card and face this squad and get absolutely obliterated in four games? I think not. So the Blues end the calendar year in 2025 with a 41-31-12 record. That’s all I’ve got, because from a Blues standpoint, aside from Binnington actually making some great stops and a goal actually being waved off for goalie interference that actually upset MacKinnon because he was the culprit, they did nothing else. To make matters worse, Thomas was on the ice in the last three minutes and appeared to have his leg rolled up on and was having trouble getting off the ice after the game. Happy New Year. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/fb48aa1b-14b5-4a8d-8a44-44091f718dec.jpeg] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
