Pattern Presents a Problem

The Blues got out a brilliant start this season, winning five of their first six. They came from behind in three of those five victories, showing heart and spirit. Over the past three games, this spirit has disappeared.

After a tough road loss in Detroit in which a horrid call cost the Blues at least one point, when captain David Backes was ejected for a hit to the head (it was actually to the shoulder), the Blues came home for a four game stretch in St. Louis. The first game of the homestand was against a Nashville team that they'd beaten twice already this season and did so soundly at home the second time with a 3-0 win. One would expect the Predators to be tired of losing to the Blues and to come out with a big effort. Well, they certainly did that and the Blues had no answer for it. The final was 6-1 and it was pretty embarrassing. I fell asleep after it was 3-0 and it was pretty obvious that the Blues were content to lay an egg that night. I wrote it off, as many of us did, to these things will happen on occasion, especially with such a condensed schedule. With Detroit coming in two days later, they'd want to take it to them after they got robbed at the Red Wings' place just days earlier. Wrong. The Blues came out strong in the first, but got behind 2-0 fairly early and had a "woe is me" lull. They began to play well again in the second and got a power play goal from Alex Pietrangelo to cut it to a 2-1 Detroit lead. In the blink of an eye, the Wings answered with two goals in 1:31 and that was all she wrote. It was 4-1 and even with a period left, they essentially gave up. That one lull right after scoring cost them the game.

Saturday night, the Blues had Anaheim in town. The Blues grabbed the momentum early with a quick power play goal, but they gave it right back when goalie Brian Elliott gave up perhaps his softest goal of the season, a straight shot right off his arm that trickled across the line. The Blues hung with it and while I feel they didn't outplay the Ducks by that much in the first, finished the period with a 3-1 lead. Things fell apart in the second period. Anaheim scored three goals in a span of 1:41, with defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown. Obvious plays like putting a body on a guy who is approaching 700 career goals in Teemu Selanne escaped the Blues during this span and it cost them. A two goal lead became a one goal deficit almost instantly. The Blues would rally with a goal to tie it at four early in the third and then the two team would trade goals in the last six and a half minutes of the third, forcing overtime. The Blues caught a bad break when they scored what looked to be the winner in overtime, just to have it waived off when Patrik Berglund was shoved into the Ducks' goalie and eventually lost in the shootout. But the point stands, that it never should have come down to overtime. Without the Blues taking two minutes off in which they allowed three goals, they would've been in great shape to win the game. 

The most frustrating thing for me after the game on Saturday as I walked out of the arena with my friends, was some moron started sarcastically chanting Brian Elliott's name. I pointed out how his defense hung him out to dry during that three goal span, but he just argued it further. Elliott hasn't been good over the last few games by any stretch of the imagination, but to blame solely him for the Blues' losing streak is ignorant and short sighted. Saturday's game was a team loss and so were the other three games before it. The Blues need to get it together and start putting together team wins again.

I'm aware that players are more likely to be tired with the shortened scheduled, but that can't be an excuse with every team dealing with those issues. No one is going to feel sorry for the Blues. They have to get back to playing the way they were at the beginning of the season, not taking shifts off, fore checking relentlessly, and being accountable on defense. If the Blues do that, they can get back on track and contend with the Blackhawks for the Central Division title.