Blues get bludgeoned in embarrassing fashion in 8-0 loss to Avs

Colorado responds to St. Louis' season-opening 4-1 Wednesday win with 

five power-play goals, answer coach's call; O'Reilly calls loss wake-up call 

By LOU KORAC
Well, the Blues had to have expected a response from the Colorado Avalanche.

They got one in a big way.

Actually, as captain Ryan O'Reilly said, an embarrassing way.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Blues goalie Jordan Binnington (right) looks through a crowd in position to

make a save against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.

Jordan Binnington gave the Blues a chance to get their legs underneath them by keeping the first period scoreless, but the floodgates opened, and the Blues were overwhelmed and bludgeoned by the Avalanche, 8-0, on Friday at Ball Arena, in Mike Hoffman's Blues debut.

After a season-opening 4-1 win in the same building on Wednesday, what started slow, finished in a burial of Avalanche goals over the final 40 minutes thanks to Binnington's heroics in the opening 20.

Colorado scored five times on the power play, and scored four times in each of the final two periods to completely wipe clean what the Blues were able to do to the Avalanche two days after their coach, Jared Bednar, called out his players for a lack of compete level.

"We embarrassed ourselves tonight. That was very disappointing," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "The thing is, we came into the game and you could tell we didn't have the detail in it. The little things steamrolled into big things. It was everyone. I thought 'Binner' played outstanding the time he was in the net. He made some huge saves, but once they got that first one, we just tightened right up. We lost the details and it just steamrolled from there. 

"We're embarrassed. That was not what we do. We stick with it and we compete to the end and we didn't. It's my fault, it's some other guys too. We have to find a way to get something out of it. It's very disappointing."

Luckily for the Blues, this only counts as one loss because it felt like 10.

Binnington, who was pulled after the second period and gave way to Ville Husso's NHL debut in the third, made 13 first-period saves to keep the game 0-0, perhaps giving the Blues their wake-up call based on their goalie giving them a fighting chance.

It only got worse instead.

"We let him hang out to dry and that's why I pulled him," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "... We didn't come out with enough urgency obviously. They had way more urgency in the game. We escaped the first period, but it never got better. We talked about it. We just didn't compete hard enough in a lot of areas. We lost puck battles. I can go on and on. We can't take all the penalties we take. We give up (five) power-play goals. I mean, you know ..."

The Blues also lost defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who played just 1:28 after he was belted from behind by a Valeri Nichushkin shoulder with his back to the ice deep in the Blues zone along the back boards. No penalty was called on the play, and the Blues were down to five defenseman most of the game.

"For sure going down a d-man obviously, 'Bobbo' plays hard, he's tough to play against, a great defenseman," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "Obviously when you take a guy like that out of the lineup, it's tough. Obviously it's on us to step up and be better, but he's a great d-man and it's tough losing him."

The Blues lost forward Sammy Blais for two games after he was penalized by the NHL's Department of Player Safety for his hit to the head on Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews, and Berube was understanding of the outcome there. He's expecting the same in this instance even though a penalty was missed.

"It should be (a hearing)," Berube said. "It's a hit from behind to the head."

"I haven't seen it yet, and I heard it was bad," O'Reilly said. "We obviously lost him, which is a huge loss for us with the energy and the physicality and the presence that 'Bobbo' has. To have him out of the game hurt us. I didn't see the hit, I just heard it was bad."

Eight Avalanche skaters had two or more points in the game, including Nathan MacKinnon (one goal, two assists), Cale Makar (three assists), Gabriel Landeskog (two goals), Toews, Nazem Kadri Andre Burakovsky and Mikko Rantanen (one goal, one assist each) and Samuel Girard (two assists). 

Whoever had Avalanche players on their fantasy teams padded their stats greatly.

"We talked about it before the game, we talked about it yesterday," Berube said. "I don't know. We just weren't there tonight at all."

It started at 4:03 of the second period when Landeskog, who was moved up to the top line with MacKinnon and Rantanen, scoring all alone in the slot to make it 1-0, and then the Avalanche power play went to work, scoring on five of six attempts before settling for a 5-for-7 night.

Burakovsky at 12:24, another Landeskog even-strength goal at 14:34 and a Rantanen power-play goal at 17:05 made it 4-0 and sent Binnington to the showers after he made 13 first-period saves.

"He was our best player tonight by far," O'Reilly said of Binnington. "... It's embarrassing what we did in front of him. We have to find a way to shut it down and find something and we didn't. We let him out to dry, we let Husso out to dry. It's a wake-up call for us. I think after the first game, we got some good bounces, we win, we think it's going to be easier and we lose sight of the detail. It's a wake-up call for us and we have to find a way to respond and find a way to put more attention to detail I guess."

Things didn't get better for Husso, who was put in a tough spot coming in cold off the bench, and Colorado scored three more power-play goals (Kadri at 1:13, MacKinnon at 11:29 and Toews at 14:56) sandwiched around a Joonas Donskoi even-strength goal at 12:02.

The penalty kill has now allowed six goals on 11 opportunities the first two games, while the power-play has gone 0-for-6 to start the season.

Colorado outshot the Blues 15-4 on the power play in the game.

"We're just out of sync right now," O'Reilly said of the PK. "You can tell we're not tight, we're not together. Once they got the first one or two, you could tell we were kind of on our heels. We weren't all together. ... We embarrassed ourselves. That's not Blues hockey.

"Tonight (on the power play) was tough. You could tell we were fighting it. Again, myself there. I don't think I made a hockey play tonight, especially on the power play. I have to find a way to win a battle and create something and there was just nothing tonight. You could tell every time we touched it, nothing was clean, nothing was flat and you're not going to have success when the little details aren't there. We had a chance to gain some momentum off the power play and we didn't get anything. Definitely we have to regroup there."

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Blues forward Jaden Schwartz (left) can't beat Avalanche goalie Philipp

Grubauer on a backhand attempt Friday in Denver.

Bednar challenged his players, and Berube said he expects his team to respond to O'Reilly's wake-up call. The Blues come home for four games against San Jose and Los Angeles starting Monday, and it couldn't come soon enough.

"Yeah, I do. It should be a wake-up call," Berube said. "It's a tough league and you've got to show up every night and you've got to compete every night and you've got to play the right way. We're a structured hockey team, we play good defense and we didn't do any of that tonight, and that's what happens."

Hoffman made his Blues debut Friday after his working visa paperwork was completed. He had to sit out Wednesday's win.