Blues flop against lowly Devils, come out of break with 7-4 stinker

From goaltending on out, team poorly executed game it shouldn't lose, 

allowing five third-period goals, failing in all aspects starting with veterans

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- They were rested, they were fully stocked and said all the right things about getting the post All-Star schedule going in the right direction.

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Goalie Jordan Binnington (right) makes a glove save of a shot around

teammate Robert Bortuzzo (41) and New Jersey's Nathan Bastian.

Someone forgot to tell the Blues that, because playing an inferior opponent in the New Jersey Devils should have had them prepared to play with fresh legs, fresh energy and a different perspective.

Not only was their 7-4 flop of a loss discouraging but it was downright embarrassing, from the goaltending on out and left the 18,096 at Enterprise Center baffled by what they had just witnessed.

The Blues (26-14-5), who crawled into their break with a flub job, a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, also on home ice, and felt that a break would do them some good and get the juices flowing in the right direction and the energy level back to where it needs to be.

Well, so much for that notion. 

That performance, which included a third-period collapse over the final 10-plus minutes, was anything but exemplary. It was quite degrading, and not any one individual. It was a collective poor team performance.

"Obviously not good enough start to finish tonight," said veteran forward Brayden Schenn, who scored twice to give him 11 points (seven goals, four assists) the past seven games. "It's not a confidence issue, it's not a hard work issue. I think it's maybe a little bit of a committing to the little details that maybe win you the game and just got to find a way to be better at that. Not be better, just be more consistent with it. Those are things we can clean up and we will."

But the looming question here is why does this issue have to be brought up in the first place? The Blues were playing a team that had just come off of a 7-1 win against the lowly Montreal Canadiens but one that had lost seven previous games and were outscored 30-12.
But it was the Devils (17-26-5), playing their third game in four nights mind you, that skated harder, worked harder, made good puck decisions and simply executed better that the Blues did.

The Blues looked like they were skating in quicksand, they looked like they had no clue what to do with pucks when they got them, and when they did, they played hot potato with it.
It led to a 2-0 deficit before finally waking up with a fourth-line goal from Klim Kostin, his first in 30 games, and then again in the second period, but puck issues were consistent throughout, and they finally reared their ugly heads when the Devils blew it open for five goals, including a pair of empty-netters.

"Poor puck composure at times," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought the second period was really good. We were coming. I thought we took control of the game. Even after the first 10 minutes of the first.

"In the third period, the game was under control until they tied it up and then I thought that we lost our confidence there, and just kind of fell apart."

How does that happen, especially with a veteran group. A veteran group playing a team going nowhere and missing some of their top players? 

Perhaps the Blues were buying into their own hype of having everyone at their disposal and they could just come back, drop their sticks on the ice and play.

Hardly.

"It’s not obviously not the result we wanted," defenseman Colton Parayko said. "Every team’s good in this league, Eastern Conference, Western Conference, wherever you are in the standings. Every team’s good, there’s no nights off in this league. We just got to make sure we’re ready.

"I don’t know if there was one thing (missing). I think being prepared, coming ready to play was a big thing. Making sure we’re working for each other and playing for each other, just our overall game. Got to be sure we’re ready to play each night, every team is good in this league, that’s just the way it is."

We'll get to Jordan Binnington in a moment, because he can't be absolved from tonight's poor performance, even though it wasn't all on him.

But let's cut to the chase with the players.

It started from the opening face-off, when the Blues couldn't even execute a simple play of getting a puck deep into the Devils zone after winning the draw.

Justin Faulk plays the puck up along the right side to Vladimir Tarasenko, and Tarasenko can't even move the puck deep. From there, the Devils would get the game's first eight shots on goal, they had two goals by their ninth shot while the Blues were swimming for pucks.
Faulk's turnover led directly to a P.K. Subban goal over two minutes in, to no fault of Binnington, and on New Jersey's second goal, Michael McLeod took a page out of the All-Star playbook of skating through four Blues before scoring.

First off after taking a pass from Damon Severson near the top of the Devils d-zone circle, McLeod skirts by a half-hearted stab at a poke check by Tarasenko, then cuts inside of defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who didn't know whether he should stand up McLeod or take Mason Geertsen along the wall. All the while McLeod was blazing up the ice, Robert Thomas was more sight-seeing rather than back-checking before deciding that at the Blues blue line, Thomas should perhaps join the play but was too late in making that decision and was going to get a hooking penalty. Defenseman Marco Scandella, who had a porous night, took a glance at the outer skater but was late in challenging McLeod, who lost the handle of the puck but was able to recover and slide it past a befuddled Binnington, who was sliding back into his net and moving the wrong way as McLeod was able to recover and punch in the shot and it's 2-0.

Shell-shocked, the Blues were mesmerized. Either they weren't skating nearly hard enough or they just made bad puck decisions.

"Yeah, it's like I said, that's a commitment thing," Schenn said. "You can't make a play offensively all the time. Early on, getting our legs underneath us, we were fighting it. Maybe a little bit of a layoff, but as the game progressed, I think we've just got to make a commitment to chipping it in, grinding it in, grinding it, wearing teams down and it's going to win you hockey games in the long run. Not trying to go run-and-gun with teams. We know we can't play that way."

Well, Tarasenko, Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, a line that's worked well most of the season, decided that they were going to take a leisurely waltz throughout this one. The line, which didn't contribute a shot attempt in the first period, finished a combined minus-8 with zero points.

Yet through a shoddy first period, the Blues found their game for stretches. Not great, not fully consistent, but enough to earn themselves a 3-2 lead on goals by Schenn and Justin Faulk, whose shot from the blue line caromed off the post, off goalie Jon Gillies -- yes, that Job Gillies who started a game for the Blues this season -- and back barely over the goal line. 
It was a 3-2 lead after two in a game where things weren't going great, but the Blues had a lead, and they were 17-1-2 when leading after two periods. The Devils were 2-23-2 when trailing. 

Common sense says the Blues find a way, right?

Not on Thursday.

It started again with an inability to get a puck in deep, from Torey Krug playing a puck off the wall to Ryan O'Reilly not being able to handle it well and losing the puck. The Devils, who made a habit of turning pucks back offensively, were able to turn the puck back into the Blues' zone and four Blues skaters got caught with only Scandella to fend for a 2-on-1 before Krug could get himself in the play. By the time Scandella turned to try and mark Yegor Sharangovich in the slot, the puck was past Binnington to tie the game 3-3 at 9:08.

"We can't let that happen," Schenn said. 'We gave them some opportunities, some chances. 'Binner' made a save there when he was out of the net. There's just too many chances we're giving up. We're not tight enough defensively to close the game out. Obviously way to loose and that's what happens. Teams are good. Players are good with lots of skill and they're going to find ways to score if you're not going to tighten up defensively."

Hischier's go-ahead goal that put the Devils up for good at 11:34 was the result of another poor forecheck and easy defensive zone departure -- a common theme for the night -- by the Devils. With the Kyrou-Thomas-Tarasenko line, which was quite honestly poor throughout the game, posing no threat of a pressure forecheck, the Devils freely move the puck up ice with no back-check whatsoever. In fact, Krug moved into the corner to try to forecheck a play rather than one of the forwards on the play and got himself caught up getting no help in the process from the forwards. Subban was able to make a direct pass to Hischier, who beats Binnington sliding late from his left to right, not picking up the cross-ice pass nearly in time on a save that normally would be routine for him as the puck was shot down the middle of the ice.

And again, as the capper late, another fruitless forecheck by Blues forwards allows New Jersey to move it freely, easily and with no resistence up ice, and while making a line change, the d-pair backs in allowing Jimmy Vesey, who like McLeod was able to take a puck from the top of his own d-zone circle and move into the Blues zone, skate to his right and on the backhand, get past Scandella's faint challenge and beat Binnington with a backhand while he's taking himself out of the play giving the far side of the net.

Game. Set. Match. Fumbling away points to teams far below them in the standings. The Blues did it against Arizona earlier this season too, and on home ice.

"That's a mindset, a mindset that when you play these divisional games or teams that are ahead of you in the standings, your mindset is you've got to be prepared and come out with your best effort," Schenn said. "We can't have the mindset of we're playing teams that maybe don't have as many wins here coming up and anyone can beat anyone any given night. You obviously see that. Tonight, they stuck it to us. So for us, it's committing to a mindset that you have to be good for 60 minutes no matter who you're playing because the league has so much parity in it and each team has good players. Anyone can beat anyone and we've got to realize that."

The Blues obviously again didn't realize it on this night.

Now to Binnington, who stopped 22 of 27 shots faced. He was given the keys tonight by the Blues, and again, although it wasn't all his fault, the fact remains that it's another night with a plethora of goals in the net behind him.

SInce the Winter Classic, Binnington is 2-4-0 with an alarming 5.04 goals-against average and .862 save percentage; he's allowed three or more goals in 12 of his past 15 games and his 3.35 GAA this season ranks 31st among goalies with 20 or more starts and his ..898 save percentage ranks 25th.

"He was off a long time. That was the plan," Berube said. "We played (Ville) Husso the last two games before the break. We talked to 'Binner' about that, he was going to get some work in and get prepared for Jersey. So that was the thought process.

"He’s just got to stay working. There’s no magic. It’s all about work ethic and keep working. Go in there and play a game and get a win, and that builds your confidence."

It's obvious the Blues aren't playing with a ton of confidence in front of him, and Binnington just doesn't have it right now. Going to Ville Husso, who is 9-3-1 with a 1.90 GAA and .941 save percentage this season, makes the most sense right now. But at some point, the Blues need to get their $6 million goalie going, and fast.

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Brandon Saad (left) and the Blues did not play well on Thursday against

Damon Severson (28) and the New Jersey Devils, falling 7-4.

"That's on us in front of him to tighten up," Schenn said of Binnington. "Not even tonight, in general with our goalies. We're just giving up too many chances for them. We know we can be better in front of him and we're not worried about 'Binner'. 'Binner's our guy. He's our No. 1 and we're not worried about 'Binner'. He'll find his game and he'll be huge for us down the stretch."

The lack of preparation Thursday was obviously evident, and that's concerning all things considered. 

The Blues need better from their top players. They have another opponent (Chicago) coming into their building on Saturday, and the Blackhawks have a goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury) that stands better -- way better -- than the one they lost to on Thursday.

"Obviously in the first period we were getting our legs going a little bit more, getting into game shape a little bit," Parayko said. "I thought our second was great, just continued to progress as the second period went on. Just a couple letdowns or breakdowns in the third. That’s hockey."