The St. Louis Blues lost four in a row, including a rather embarrassing 6-4 loss to Detroit, where the Blues were ahead 4-0. Coming home after a loss in Pittsburgh, St. Louis had the chance to get some retribution with the Wings visiting Enterprise Center.
It seemed like things were going to go right for a change. In the first minute of play, the Blues pressured the Wings into a mistake in their zone and eventually Brayden Schenn scored into an empty net on a rebound.
The captain kept the energy up, getting into a fight not long after that. However, that's about where the good feelings stopped.
Things continued to spiral with bad luck or bad breaks or whatever. Colton Parayko fell in the defensive corner, which allowed the Wings to get the puck to the left point. A rather innocuous shot that was likely going wide somehow hit Justin Faulk in front of the net and went in to make it 1-1.
Things remained pretty even the rest of the period, but Dylan Holloway took a dumb offensive-zone penalty in the final minute. Alex DeBrincat got a deflection in front of the net, turning a routine save into a puck that just snuck under Jordan Binnington's glove, and it was 2-1 going into the intermission.
St. Louis came out with some fire, but couldn't get the puck behind John Gibson, even with him out of position on a wraparound. Meanwhile, the Blues continued to get lost on backside pressure with floated passes, and Binnington had to bail them out about five minutes in.
St. Louis took another bad penalty when Nathan Walker nearly crosschecked his opponent in the neck. Detroit just missed on their own wraparound, but it remained 2-1 with nine minutes left.
However, the Red Wings scored immediately after that. Dylan Larkin won the faceoff, went to the right hashmark, and scored on a deflection to make it 3-1.
That didn't even last long. The Blues continued to look clueless when Nathan Walker left his defensive assignment wide open in front to attack the puck carrier, who was already covered. This led to a pass right out front and an easy one-timer for a 4-1 score for the Wings.
The Blues had two power plays to end the period, but couldn't get a goal. Even with a breakaway for Faulk, St. Louis only got the one shot and no rebound since the puck bounced before he could get the swing on the puck.
The third period was a lot of nothing. The Blues would pressure a bit and then make a bone headed pass that led to a quality look for Detroit. Meanwhile, the Red Wings basically just salted the game away, taking icings if they needed since they were dominating the faceoffs anyway.
The reliance on defending finally caught Detroit with 4:24 left. Pius Suter lifted the stick of a Detroit player, found Jordan Kyrou in the slot and he snapped it home to make it 4-2.
After a Detroit icing, the Blues channeled their inner Patrick Roy by pulling the goalie with over four minutes left. The Blues held it off for a while, but eventually the Wings got the empty net goal. A block led to an outlet feed to Larkin, who scored from his own blue line.
5-2 was the final as the Blues lost their fifth in a row.
Pro/Con: Effort
One thing multiple people said, including Bernie Federko, was that the effort was there, at least for the first two periods. However, at times that was the problem.
Guys were skating, they were trying to get in deep on the forecheck or attack puck carriers. That should all be good.
The reality is, this is the hockey version of a batter trying way too hard when they're in a slump. The harder the Blues try, the worse it gets because they just end up out of position.
If the defense pushes deep into the zone, the forwards are trying to join the scrum and help out instead of getting into a defensive position. This allows easy breakouts.
Similarly, the Walker mistake was a prime example of doing too much. He needs to plant himself in the passing lane and stay near the front of the net. By thinking he could help out and steal the puck, he vacates his position and leaves a man wide open for a goal.
Nobody trusts the process or the system right now, so they're overextending themselves, and that just makes it worse.
Pro: Schenn
One of the few bright spots in this game was the captain. He came to play right away and tried to lead by example.
The Blues had a great first couple of shifts and Schenn crashed the net, got behind the defender, and opened up the scoring. He also got the crowd into it even more with a fight.
Despite the goal, he ended up a minus-1 on the night, meaning he was out there for two goals against. What more is he supposed to do, though? He played the way you want a captain to, but the result is the same.
Con: Faceoffs
As much grief as the fan base gives Robert Thomas, you can tell the difference his absence is having on the dot. The final tally ended up being 60/40 in favor of Detroit for faceoff percentage.
It was much worse than that for much of the game, with the Blues finally winning a few towards the end of the game.
Losing a faceoff led directly to the Larkin goal. If you win that, even if you get stuck in your defensive corner, at least it's not an easy pass for a setup in front.
Losing faceoffs puts you on the chase the whole game. Playing from behind makes it worse.
Overview:
Federko put it plain and simple at the end of the game. This is a group with absolutely no confidence right now, and nobody is going to be able to give it to them except themselves.
Nobody in this league will feel sorry for the Blues and say, Here you go, guys. Here are a few goals and a win to feel good about yourself.
The effort is there, but they need to play smarter. There are way too many passes putting teammates in horrendous positions. I can't even count the number of times pucks left the zone or led to Detroit counter attacks because someone just threw it into an area hoping or, worse, fired it at a teammate with no hope of actually catching the pass.
Binnington is doing his best, but like Hofer, he's not even seeing a ton of shots. There's nothing the goalie can do when the only shots against you are grade-A chances from your own team's mistakes.
That's another thing going wrong with St. Louis right now. All of their mistakes end up in the back of the net.
Even when they take a foolish penalty, it seems to always cost them. Coming into the Detroit game, they allowed the fifth fewest shots in the league and had the worst goals against average. That is literally allowing every bad play or mistake to end up costing you.
Nobody is coming to help. Thomas is day-to-day, but doesn't sound like he'll be ready for any games this week, and Jake Neighbours is out at least five weeks.
Even if you bring up someone like Dalibor Dvorsky, what is he going to do that will help the current problems? The guys in the locker room right now have to figure it out, or else they'll just end up getting anyone brought up from Springfield in the same rut.
One of the last actual good games the Blues played was against Vancouver. Maybe playing the Canucks in the next game will yield positive results again.