EDMONTON, AB — Well, that was suboptimal.
These are round-robin games and the Blues will be playing next week regardless of what happened in these three games against Colorado, Vegas and Dallas.
But if Thursday's 6-4 loss against the Golden Knights is any indication moving forward, the Blues are in trouble.
If fans thought there was too much sloppiness in a 2-1 loss to the Avalanche Sunday when the Blues were beaten on a goal with 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation, their execution against the Golden Knights, despite finally getting some offense in the Edmonton bubble at Rogers Place, was pretty paltry.
"Coming into this playoffs here, this round-robin, I'm not sure that our guys have really brought the intensity to the first two games that's needed," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I think in the Colorado game, there was good spurts of it at times, but right now, these two games, the other teams have been more competitive and more hungry than we have. Whether we thought it was going to be easy coming in here in these round-robin games ... for me, they're pretty competitive teams we've played here, both of them. Our compete level has to come way up."
Not just way up, but waaaaaaaay up.
Vegas, which outscored the Blues 3-0 in the third period, the second time in as many games the Blues coughed up a third-period lead when they didn't lose a game in regulation in that scenario, smothered the Blues into oblivion.
The Golden Knights had a 71-28 -- yes 71-28! -- shot attempts advantage, and it was no coincidence.
When Vegas had the puck, they forechecked and disrupted the Blues puck transition. When the Blues had the puck, well, it was usually one-and-done, or as Berube said, Vegas was taking it from them.
"No, we didn't have the puck," Berube said. "I think that we had the puck in the offensive zone and they went and took it from us. That's basically what it boiled down to. You have to compete hard with it. If you want to keep it, you have to have people around it. They outnumbered us at times, they were more hungrier than we were. When you play like that and the other team's more hungry, they're going to take the puck from you, and that's what they did."
When the Golden Knights had the puck, they were funneling it to the net. It's hard to write about how terrific a goalie played when allowing six goals, but had it not been for Jordan Binnington, particularly in the first period when the Blues were outshot for the second game in a row -- 13-5 on Thursday after Colorado outshot them 16-4 on Sunday -- this would have been a wider margin of loss.
Instead, they led 1-0 on a David Perron goal on their first shot of the game.
"Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of teams are kind of in the same situation where you're coming into the playoffs not knowing what to expect, not knowing what you're day-to-day life is going to be like here," said forward Troy Brouwer, whose second-period goal gave the Blues a 4-3 lead. "These games, even though they're not elimination games, they're still very important, and we just have to make sure that we start trending the right way, getting into that first series. We obviously don't know who we're playing yet, but we need to go into that series, Game 1, with a good feeling and confidence in our group."
Right now, that confidence seems to be lacking. Even though the Blues led on Perron's goal at 4:02, a shot that they forced as a result of a Vegas defensive zone turnover, it was all Binnington. He stopped 32 shots in this game and is 36-for-36 in saves during three first-period games in Edmonton, including the exhibition game against Chicago on July 29.
And in even taking a 2-0 lead on the first of two Colton Parayko goals at 1:45 of the second off another Vegas turnover, the Blues played loose. Their gaps were too wide open, and Vegas zone entries were too easy mainly as a result of defenders having to back in because the forwards' back pressure was lacking. The Golden Knights took advantage with two power-play goals, one from Shea Theodore and one from Alex Tuch sandwiched around the first of two Tuch goals, to take a 3-2 lead.
But the Blues scored twice in 21 seconds, from Parayko again and Brouwer's one-timer at 14:28, to forge ahead 4-3. However, instead of hammering away and building off that lead, they faded again.
Vegas struck quickly to tie it 4-4 on a Zach Whitecloud goal at 2:01. Then, the Golden Knights got the winner from Mark Stone at 12:31 to go ahead 5-4. Theodore's second goal of the game came at 14:49 to seal the win.
"Yeah, I think obviously they had three goals and they came at us hard," Parayko said. "Credit to them, they played a good third."
And the Blues, who didn't get their first shot on goal in the period until 3:55 remaining (they were outshot 38-17 for the game), did not play a good third.
"They were just better all game to be honest with you," Berube said. "We have the lead in the third, they never change their game much, they came at us and we didn't respond very well and that's the bottom line. They were better than us all game."
Now the Blues turn their attentions to Dallas, which is also 0-2-0, and the winner of that game will be the third seed. The Blues still had a chance at the No. 1 seed with a win Thursday, a Vegas regulation win over Colorado Saturday and a Blues win on Sunday. But now all the Blues are playing for is the third seed.
Oh, and a level of urgency going into the first round of the playoffs.
"Well, it's just a choice of our team. They know that," Berube said. "We talked after the game that the intensity level has to come way up, the compete has to come way up. If you want to just keep chasing the game, then we'll keep playing the way we want. If we want to control the game, then we've got to compete a lot harder and do a lot more things with the puck."
"I think just coming Sunday with the right attitude, the right approach to the game," Parayko said. "Obviously it's got to start next practice, but you've got to make sure we're dialed in there, working together. And then after that, we've got to be ready for Sunday. Obviously Dallas is a good team, they always play us hard. So just making sure we play tight and play our style of hockey. There's obviously no doubt if we do that."
Notes
The Blues sat forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas as well as defenseman Carl Gunnarsson. They were replaced by Brouwer, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Bortuzzo. Mackenzie MacEachern, like Kyrou, made his NHL postseason debut.
As for Thomas, Berube said Wednesday he should be fine, and he said Tarasenko will also be OK.
"Just precautionary stuff. He'll be fine to go," Berube said. "He's fine. He's going to be fine."
