Plenty of shots, little offense for Blues in 4-1 loss to Avalanche

St. Louis attempts 82 shots at Colorado goal, miss net 22 times 

in frustrating loss, fall four points out of wildcard spot, five behind Avs

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- It turned into a bad omen just 3 minutes, 5 seconds into the game. Then with 16:38 remaining, it was the most of painful reminders.

The Blues' season in a nutshell when it comes to the majority of their losses, creating all sorts of scoring opportunities but to come up empty, and when Brayden Schenn was robbed on the doorstep by Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov early in the game, and when Vladimir Tarasenko inexplicably missed a wide open net early in the third period, it summed up a painful 4-1 loss to the Avalanche on Thursday at Scottrade Center.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Defenseman Joel Edmundson (6) scored the lone goal for the Blues in a 4-1

loss to Colorado Thursday. 

Despite a shot-attempt advantage of 82-42, the Blues (37-28-5) peppered Varlamov for 45 shots but missed the net 22 times and had another 15 blocked. It was a game very similar to the ones the Blues won in California over Los Angeles and Anaheim except for the finish. 

"Before we were talking how we couldn't score, I don't think we were generating a whole lot of chances," Schenn said. "Tonight, I don't know how many we had. We did whatever we could, we threw them at the net, we got second chances, third chances, hit posts, just one of those nights it wasn't able to go in."

Wasn't able to go in. How often have those words been uttered?

Far too often, unfortunately.

And for the Blues, who now sit four points behind Dallas for the second wildcard in the Western Conference and five behind the Avalanche (38-24-8), who are 6-0-3 in their past nine games, time is of essence. 

Time for moral victories is over. These were two points in a season where many have been frittered away that were lost.

"From a coaching standpoint, I think you have to appreciate that we continue to push and continue to find a way to get to the offensive zone, generate chances," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "It didn't go in unfortunately, but still I'd say looking at this game that we've continued where we were playing some good hockey, generating chances, controlling the play. If we continue to do that and find a way to get a little bit better in a few little areas, then we'll get a lot of wins."

Better as in actually putting the puck in the net? Like Colorado's top guns did? Like Nathan MacKinnon, who extended his point streak to 10 games (10 goals, 10 assists) did twice? Like Mikko Rantanen, who had a four-point night with two goals and two assists and Gabriel Landeskog with his three assists did?

"We threw 45 pucks at the net, our (offensive) zone time, I didn't even know," Schenn said. "It felt like we dominated lots of the game, wore them down. At the end of the day, their big line scored four for them, that was the difference in the hockey game."

"Yeah, that was our game plan, fire as many shots as we can," said Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson, who returned after missing 13 games with a fractured right forearm and scored the only goal. "I think we got 45 shots and probably missed the net 10-15 times. We were shooting everything and just ran into a hot goalie."

The Blues, who had beaten Colorado three previous times this season, four straight going back to last season and had at least a point in 12 straight against the Avalanche (9-0-3), came out of the first period down 2-0 on two MacKinnon goals despite having the better of the play.

MacKinnon scored at 10:11 of the first to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead. After Kyle Brodziak's pass got past Alex Pietrangelo, Colorado's Tyson Barrie sent the puck back into the neutral zone, where MacKinnon picked it up. He could have been checked off the puck by Patrik Berglund, who failed before getting another chance along with Chris Thorburn to bump Gabriel Landeskog off the puck inside the blue line.

Instead, Landeskog flipped a backhand to Rantanen, who backhanded the puck back to MacKinnon before he used Colton Parayko as a screen before snapping a shot past a screened Jake Allen, who made 19 saves, to get the Avalanche on the board.

"I think we could've been a little bit harder on the first puck battle in the offensive zone, and just sorted it out a little bit better," Yeo said. "We kind of had three guys fishing around on the one puck, and the way I saw it, I thought 'Thorbs' was on the 1-on-1, and we probably could've just been a little bit more alert on where other people were. But again, I think a guy like Nathan MacKinnon's gonna find a way to get a couple shots like that in a game."

He did so again and made it 2-0 at 13:03 by being in the right place at the right time.

Barrie's harmless flop shot towards the net seemed to handcuff Allen, who had Landeskog in front. The puck caromed off Allen's body and to his right, where MacKinnon beat his guy to the net and cashed in.

"It dropped like three or four feet," Allen said. "I didn’t get a good glimpse on it until the end. I just tried to put a glove on it. It was a knuckler and it just hit my body weird. Obviously was wide open there."

Edmundson, playing his first game since Feb. 8, made it 2-1 at 9:15 of the second period, the only time they could solve Varlamov. Edmundson was able to throw a puck at the net, using Dmitrij Jaskin's screen in the high slot and Vladimir Sobotka's screen in front of Varlamov.

"I wasn't trying to score," Edmundson admitted. "I was just trying to get it there for a rebound or a tip. 'Sobe' did a good job of getting to the net and it made it hard for [Varlamov] to see."

The Blues had the momentum. They were building and appeared on the verge of getting the game to at least 2-2 and then perhaps taking it over, but a back-breaking goal late in the second on Colorado's sixth shot gave them a 3-1 edge.

With three players (Alexander Steen, Edmundson and Parayko) going off for a line change, Berglund lost possession of the puck heading into the offensive zone along the wall, taken off it by Landeskog, who alertly found Rantanen at the offensive zone blue line. Rantanen pushed forward with Vince Dunn fast in pursuit. Dunn did his job forcing Rantanen away from the goal onto his backhand, but Allen left a gaping hole on the short side, where Rantanen backhanded a puck off his glove and up into the net at 16:29.

While the puck was lost in the offensive zone, Yeo wonders if the Blues could have changed quicker to get fresher bodies on.

"Where the puck was, we lost the puck in the offensive zone, but I would say we have to change better than that," Yeo said. "In the second period, what you have to be able to do is change one defenseman at a time. I'm gonna have to take a look at the overhead. I don't know if we came off the ice hard enough, if we got on the ice hard enough, if we should've had one guy hold, but obviously you want to be able to hang onto the puck in the offensive zone. That's obviously the opportune time for tired defensemen to get off the ice."

"That was a tough one to give up, but I thought we responded well after that," Edmundson said. "We still had our chances after that. It's just a tough line change and we can't be turning pucks over."

The Blues did come in, in the third, and with a vengeance but to no avail.

And it was Tarasenko, who led all players with 15 shot attempts in the game (eight on, five off the mark and two blocked), who could have made it interesting.

After Jaden Schwartz's shot was stopped by Varlamov, the rebound lay to the goalie's right with Tarasenko lurking. Sure goal, right? Nope.

Tarasenko appeared to slightly go to his forehand to pop it in and at the last moment, decided to try and backhanding it in by a lunging Barrie, who threw his stick into the crease. But Tarasenko still had an open side and pulled the backhand past the near post with 16:38 to play, and the game remained 3-1.

If Schenn's save early didn't sum up the night, this did.

"Listen, 'Vladi's gonna be harder on himself than everybody," Yeo said. "Those things happen. That's part of the hockey game. We had other opportunities. Obviously 'Vladi' knows better than anybody else, he gets paid to score goals. But I would say he generated and was involved in more scoring chances tonight than he's been in a long time."

"When 'Vladi' gets that chance and he misses, he doesn't miss," Schenn said. "Give him that chance 99 times out of 100 he'll make it. Obviously that's the one time he missed. It's tough."

Rantanen cinched the game for the Avs with 41.2 remaining with an empty-net goal.

And down to 12 games, the Blues have little leeway remaining.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Jaden Schwartz (17) works the puck past Colroado's J.T. Compher during a

4-1 loss to the Avalanche on Thursday at Scottrade Center.

"We have lots of time," Schenn said. "Lots of hockey left to be played. Obviously we're going to need some help but we'll do our part and get the wins. If we were playing like we were maybe two, three weeks ago, you look back and say we don't really have a chance, but the way we're playing now after the California trip, tonight we feel like we're going in the right direction. The wins are going to come."

"I still feel confident," Yeo said. "Yeah. We're showing that we've got fight in our room right now. And obviously this is a disappointing one. I think that whether you look at the shot attempts, whether you look at some of the play, you can see that guys care. And I know that you don't get points for that. But what it does, it gives me confidence that this is a group that's gonna be ready to respond."