St. Louis suffers two tough losses

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The St. Louis Blues suffered their second consecutive loss on Thursday night when a nifty forehand goal by Marcel Goc secured a 3-2 shootout victory for the Nashville Predators. Despite the loss, the Blues redeemed themselves with strong play after the debacle that was the previous night’s loss to the Columbus Bluejackets.

“We got our game to the right place tonight,” Blues coach Davis Payne said after the game. “I think we were much quicker through the neutral zone but most importantly, we handled their forecheck early. When you play against Nashville, a real strong forechecking team, we had to make a difference back there. … I thought it was a big key for our club to handle what we didn’t handle (Wednesday) night.”
The Blues got a shootout goal from Matt D’Agostini and regulation goals from D’Agostini and David Backes while Jaroslav Halak stopped 24 shots.
At 9-2-3, the Blues remain in second place (behind Detroit) in the Western Conference’s Central Division. They were enjoying a seven game win streak before the wheels came off in Columbus.
On Saturday, the Blues played a real nail-biter against the Boston Bruins. Vladimir Sobotka, an ex-Bruin would beat Tuuka Rask to put the Blues up 1-0. The score would stay that way until Gregory Campbell blistered a shot from the slot past Jaraslov Halak at 13:00 of the third period. Halak was looking for his fourth shutout in five games. Luck would still be on Halak’s side, as two plays were sent to a video review, and both times the review showed that the puck did not cross the goal line.
The game remained tied through overtime, and went into the shootout. Tyler Seguin, the Bruins second shooter, would be the only Bruin to beat Halak. The Blues sent T.J. Oshie and Brad Boyes out to shoot and both scored. Patrice Bergeron and Michael Ryder were stopped by Halak to bring the game to its conclusion.
On Sunday night, the Blues selected Ty Conklin to mind the net. Conklin and the Blues accomplished something no other Blues team has done in the 128 meetings with New York – shutting the Rangers out, 2-0. Alex Steen’s goal at 5:16 of the second period would be enough for the Blues, and Steen added an empty net goal at 19:56 of the third period.
The Rangers had a chance to take an early lead on the Blues when Alexander Frolov thought that he had scored on Conklin. The play however was whistled dead because Blues defenseman Nikita Nikitin touched the puck with a high stick in the neutral zone. The puck made its way to Conklin who just got a piece of the bouncing puck. Frolov grabbed the puck and fired it into the net. The referee quickly blew the whistle and called the play dead because of Conklin touching the puck.
New York had an opportunity to tie the game or even take the lead when B.J. Crombeen took a five-minute major penalty for boarding. Artem Anisimov had four feet of net to look at on the power play when Ty Conklin gave up a rebound and was lying on the ice when Anismov found the loose puck on his stick. His shot however, would miss the left post and catch the outside of the net.
Taking on the Blue Jackets Wednesday night would be a completely different story as Columbus scored early and often. Jakub Voracek’s goal at 3:46 of the second period was enough for Payne to remove Halak from the game.
The Blues showed a little spark after the move, as B.J. Crombeen put the Blues on the board at the 10:58 mark. But what spark was lit from the Crombeen goal was quickly put out 11 seconds later as Chris Clark buried the Blues for good. The final score was 8-1.
Injuries have been rampant lately for the Blues. P laying without six injured regulars, they dropped to 6-0-1 at home this season with the loss to Nashville which snapped a 12-game winning streak on home ice.
Their defensive line has been decimated with the loss of Barret Jackman, Carlo Colaiacovo and Roman Polak. Added to the list now is forward T.J. Oshie, who broke his left ankle in the third period of the Columbus game. He had surgery on Thursday and will be evaluated in three months.
Lack of success on special teams has also impacted the team. The Blues had an opportunity to win Thursday’s game in overtime, but their power play, a futile 0 for 25 in the last six games and 3 for 42 since October 16th, couldn’t convert with a 1:19 4-on-3 advantage, despite Payne calling a timeout to set up plays.
On the up side, the Blues signed David Backes to a five-year contract extension on Friday. The 26-year-old forward is in his fifth pro season, all with the Blues, and has two goals, four assists and 32 penalty minutes in 14 games.
Last season the 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward had career highs with 31 assists and 266 hits. He tied for second on the team in assists and with 48 points. The Blues are currently traveling to Phoenix where they will look to get back on track, taking on the Coyotes for the first time this season on Saturday night.
Contact the author at roger.nebelsick@prohockeynews.com