Coming off a three-game losing streak, all at home, the St. Louis Blues knew they needed a good start in Colorado against a slumping, but determined Avalanche team. The first minute seemed a good sign, but it quickly went south.
The Blues opening shift looked great. The top line sprang to life in the offensive zone, got a couple of quick shots, and a good scoring opportunity from Alexandre Texier.
That was almost the extent of the positivity for the first 20 minutes. The Avalanche would rattle off four goals in the first period and the Blues didn't get their third shot on goal until the period was well past halfway done.
The first goal of the game was a little fortunate, but the Avs earned it. They buzzed with good possession, slapped a loose puck from behind the net in front and Jonathan Drouin swatted it out of midair to make it 1-0.
The second goal was pretty pathetic on the Blues part. Martin Necas went zone to zone untouched and then blasted a wrister past Joel Hofer from the middle of the zone.
It went from bad to worse once the Blues started taking penalties. Almost 15 minutes in, after a scramble in front of the net, Alexey Toropchenko tried to just tap the puck away from danger. Instead, it went directly to a wide-open Drouin on the right circle and he ripped it past a diving Hofer to make it 3-0.
The Avs got another one on the power play three minutes later. Nathan MacKinnon circled the net, drew the defense to him, dished to Cale Makar who just took a couple strides in from the blue line and wristed one just under the bar to make it 4-0.
The Blues wasted a power play awarded about three minutes into the second. Special teams continue to just be atrocious on both sides.
St. Louis finally had a good, sustained shift later in the second, but there were only five minutes left at that point. Even then, we saw the difference in the teams as the Avs were selling out for blocks while it looked like a ho-hum January game for the Blues.
The Blues finally had a decent kill to erase an Avs power play early in the third. Colorado just kept coming, forcing some decent saves by Hofer to keep the game respectable.
The Blues couldn't overcome their poor luck when they had a power play with about 12 minutes left. They won the draw and proceeded to hit two posts on the initial shift, keeping them scoreless.
The Avs would tack on another one though. Shortly after the Blues barely avoided giving up a goal on another Avs power play, St. Louis failed to clear the puck and the Avalanche shot across the grain from the left side and it was 5-0.
That would be the final. The Blues went down with a whimper, losing four straight and only getting five shots in the third.
Con: No goals
Win or lose, the Blues had managed to score for almost the entire 2024-25 season through much of January. Now, they've been shutout twice in the last three games.
You lose a close one, 2-0 against Dallas a few games ago, but at least that one was respectable and you just ran into a hot goalie. This one, the Blues were never in it.
Six shots in the first, with four of those coming late after the game was already out of reach. As mentioned, five shots in the third when you might as well throw caution to the wind and try to get anything going.