The St. Louis Blues could not get their entire team onto the ice with the loss of two key players and their call-up from Springfield being stuck at the airport all day. Couple that with a really tough opponent, the Anaheim Ducks, and a 4-1 loss was to be expected from this group.
Let's go over what the big takeaways were from this one.
Offense is stalling
The Blues offense is stalling. At 5v5, on the power play, it doesnt matter. There are good chances, a respectable amount of chances, but nothing to really show for it.
The Blues have a goals-for average of just 2.69, which is the fourth-lowest in the NHL. That is not acceptable, especially with one of their contributors to their scoring on the sidelines for the next six weeks or so.
Where does this offensive group go from here? Since November 15, this team has only scored more then two goals on one occasion out of the nine games, which was a four-goal effort against Ottawa.
Snuggerud is a huge loss
To further state how much of a loss Jimmy Snuggerud is, the Blues were 0-6 on the power play on Monday night's game against Anaheim. That is horrendous, especially since it was such a close-knit hockey game following Jordan Binnington's poor start.
Snuggerud's loss is going to be felt on all levels. And that was very apparent in the losing effort, as having 11 forwards jumbled the lines to the point they were almost not recognizable.
Goaltending problems arise again
Speaking of Binnington, there was a moment in this game that will play a very big role in what General Manager Doug Armstrong will do with the franchise-leading goaltender come next March. In what reminded me of the Patrick Roy situation in Montreal, Binnington and head coach Jim Montgomery yelling on the bench is not a good sign.
Joel Hofer was able to come back in and put in a solid effort, stopping 19 out of 20 shots on goal. Those 20 shots were filled with four medium scoring chances and two high-scoring shots from the Ducks. He had to stand on his head to keep the Blues in the game, and he might have pushed himself up the depth chart after this most recent performance.