The St. Louis Blues continue to be in there in most games, but were coming off a disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets over the weekend. They've struggled against the Nashville Predators, so plenty of fans figured this would be more of the same.
As is typical, the Blues always manage to surprise - sometimes in a good way and sometimes bad. This time it was good.
St. Louis got things off to a good start by scoring the first goal, which has actually been something they've done with consistency. Just before the five-minute mark, Jake Neighbours got a nice deflection on a tight-angle shot to make it 1-0.
The Blues' penalty kill continued to struggle as they allowed the tying goal while Nashville was a man up. Filip Forsberg somewhat mishandled a pass down low to Ryan O'Reilly. He reached out, and instead of catching it, the puck deflected off his stick and beat Joel Hofer about four minutes later.
St. Louis achieved a rare feat to retake the lead. They got a power play goal, and Pavel Buchnevich got on the score sheet. Some quick passing found Buch in the slot, and the snapper went high for a 2-1 score.
The lead felt slightly precarious, but that didn't last long. Buchnevich got his second 45 seconds into the second period. Jordan Kyrou kept Roman Josi busy, which allowed Buch to collect the loose puck, take it into the deep slot, and score 3-1.
Not quite three minutes later, the Blues were up 4-1. After a nice move to gain space on the wing by Kyrou, he fed Philip Broberg at the point. The shot went wide, off the end wall, and then Jusi Saros kicked it in.
The defense continued the scoring 30 seconds later. The Blues sprang a partial break for Colton Parayko on the right wing, and the snake-bitten defender got his first of the season by scooping it over the glove shoulder for a 5-1 score, and that chased Saros from the net.
The Blues nearly got another one almost immediately. They got the shot past the goalie, but hit the post. However, that missed chance made you wonder if things would turn against them.
Nashville got a tip-in at 11:35 to put some doubt in the Blues' heads. A little over two minutes later, Filip Forsberg roofed one over Hofer from in tight to make it 5-3 and start putting sweat beads on Blues fans' foreheads.
That sweat got intensified as the Preds put on the pressure as the period ended. It looked as though the Predators had a fourth goal at the buzzer, but upon review of the replay, it wasn't even that close. Nevertheless, it was the overall feeling that the Blues had taken their foot off the gas and Nashville would be coming in the third.
St. Louis came out hard and created some buzz in the first minute of the period, but it ended up being what we feared. O'Reilly got body position inside of the St. Louis players in tight and banged it in to make it 5-4 just over two minutes in.
It became firewagon hockey as Doc Emerick used to say, i.e., end to end. Both teams hit posts in their efforts to get the all-important next goal. Although he had a bit of a rough game, Hofer did make a good save on a breakaway about seven minutes in.
The meltdown continued, though, as the Blues got too soft through the neutral zone. The Predators came through zone to zone with no opposition, and Steven Stamkos scored on a wraparound that went in off Colton Parayko's skate to tie it.
The Blues just lost their way and looked puzzled about the fact that anyone would dare to come back on them. Stamkos outmuscled Dalibor Dvorsky on the faceoff and again in front of the net as he knocked in a floating puck from just a foot away from the goal.
Down the stretch, it was nothing but St. Louis ineptitude. In the final minutes, St. Louis couldn't even sustain possession without hitting a teammate in the backside and spinning around like an idiot, thus not even being able to pull the goalie until there was less than a minute left. St. Louis maybe got one shot on goal at the six-on-five, but didn't threaten and lost another disaster.
Overview:
I don't have it in me to divide things up after that ending. The first half of the game was about as good as we've seen the Blues look all season long.
Then, we had the second half of the game, and it not only went to the toilet, but clogged it up enough that someone probably needs to call the plumber.
We've known for some time that this team has no consistency, and they often falter at the first sign of adversity. It's not so much because they're weak, but they've had so much go against them this season, they simply don't know how to get out of their own way once things start to slip.
They do everything right in building a 5-1 lead. You have a line clicking on all cylinders with three of your bigger names in Buchnevich, Kyrou, and Neighbours. They ended the night with three goals and eight points and looked like a threesome to be reckoned with.
St. Louis got some grit and energy from the Brayden Schenn line and, although less than we've seen in other games, they got some push from their energy lines too. Defenders were cutting things off before they could materialize, Hofer was making the saves you want him to make, and they were consistently taking it to the Predators.
Then, you get a toe save from the Nashville backup and the puck trickles just past the post and it all falls apart after that. Nashville put a stranglehold on the momentum and never even thought of loosening their grip.
The Blues had no answer. There was no pushback, no scrum to get some energy back or fight. I'd say pick someone up and slam them down just to send a message, but the penalty kill has been so bad that giving up a penalty would've just exacerbated the issue.
St. Louis did still get 13 shots on Justus Annunen, but other than that post shot, it didn't feel like they were close. There wasn't nearly as much net front presence as they had against Saros, and very few second or third-chance opportunities.
Two of the Predators' goals were pure luck, but Nashville also created its luck by forcing the issue. Once the Blues were on their heels, they never really got back the things that made them successful for the first 30 minutes.
That's what is truly disappointing about this team. We can see the talent is still there, even without everyone in the lineup. The mental game is where their weakness is. Once there's a crack in the armor, it turns into a gap and then a chasm.
We hear all the time that no lead is safe, and there are lots of comebacks. The reality is that teams leading in the third period win over 80% of the time, and you could tell the Blues were going to cough this one up.
In the Columbus game, Chris Kerber said this team finally understands how to play to have success, and all they need is to find their consistency. That was never more evident than in this loss. They played in a way that led to success and then stopped, which led to an embarrassing loss in an already embarrassing season.