ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Blues thought they had their game trending in the right direction following a two-game Western Canada sweep.
They hit the home ice for the second time in as many games this season, this time against their Central Division rival Chicago Blackhawks, who they had beaten five games in a row and outscored 28-15, but the Blackhawks took advantage of a rare night of shoddy goaltending and poor team habits and play, blitzing the Blues 8-3 at Enterprise Center on Wednesday.
Jake Neighbours had a goal and an assist, Dylan Holloway and Tyler Tucker scored for the Blues (2-2-0), but Joel Hofer, who was terrific last Saturday in Calgary, was pulled in the second period before re-entering the game in the third.
"I thought that our game was building the right way in Vancouver, but our execution today did not match the Hawks' execution," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "We're playing the hawks, division rival, our biggest rival. I don't think that was the case. We didn't execute well. That's just our mental sharpness was not great."
Let's look at Wednesday's observations:
* Hofer had a rare bad night - In his young career, Hofer has had off nights, but nothing like this.
He allowed four goals on 14 shots, and the first two that went inset the tempo for what would be a horrendous night. He departed the game at 7:09 of the second period, then Jordan Binnington finished the rest of the period before returning for the third. In the end, it was seven goals allowed on 22 shots. His numbers after one game (2.00 goals-against average, .931 save percentage) ballooned to 5.01 GAA and .824 save percentage at the end of the night.
"Our tandem is excellent," Montgomery said. "Some nights, you're going to win games 2-1. We won in Calgary, we won in Vancouver because our goaltenders were excellent. Sometimes we need to win 5-4."
Hofer is normally so good as a puck handler, and he was already on display killing Chicago's rims around the net, but when he went behind the net, got a puck, looked up the middle of the ice and tried to play it to Pavel Buchnevich, it was so off the mark and right onto the tape of Ilya Mikheyev, who couldn't believe his fortune and deposited the biscuit into the net at 3:09 for a 1-0 Hawks lead:
The Blues fought back with Neighbours, who has four goals in four games, finding the back of the net for the fourth time in three games when he collected a loose puck in front of Colton Parayko's jab at the puck to tie it 1-1 at 4:29:
But Hofer allowed another bad goal, this time to Lukas Reichel from a bad angle at the bottom of the left circle on the short side at 5:23 to make it 2-1 Chicago:
They fought back again when Holloway started a play and finished it, getting his first of the season at 14:54 to tie the game 2-2, creating a turnover in the neutral zone, then finishing from the left circle Jordan Kyrou's pass:
"In the first period, we showed good resolve, came back twice and then just our habits just weren't consistent enough to play winning hockey," Montgomery said. 'Can't give up that many odd-man rushes, we can't give up that many Grade A looks off the rush."
The Blues are so used to their goalie tandem either keeping them in a game or even stealing them games. They're not nearly used to having to bail them out, perhaps a reason why they played so poorly after the first period.
"I don't think we're worried about our goaltenders at all," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "We have two of the best goalies in the league and a great tandem. If you want to talk about the goals, let's maybe talk about the team and how we're giving up odd-man rushes and point-blank chances. You can talk about the goals all you want, but if we're not doing a good enough job in front of them, it's just that simple.
"People are going to look at our goaltenders, (but) I think we're looking at ourselves individually and as a team playing in front of them. We just haven't done enough of a good job defensively, especially at home, in front of them. Obviously the goalies would say different, but as a players we feel that we have to do a way better job."
Chicago's expected goals in the game were at 3.09, according to naturalstattrick.com, which tells you that there were too many pucks on this night going in that shouldn't have, including the one Binnington allowed to Jason Dickinson at 8:52 of the second that made it 5-2:
* Two bad results at home - Including the playoffs, the Blues won their last 15 games on home ice and on most of those occasions, done so in convincing fashion.
It's only two games, yes, and I agree, the result in the opener (a 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild) wasn't as bad as the score indicated, but this marks two games now in which the Blues have not even been competitive in, in front of their home fans, being outscored 13-3.
"That's a fair question. It's been only two games ... I think through two road games, even six periods on the road, we've played four good periods," Schenn said. 'We need to clean up a lot of things with our habits and details and tracking and puck play and willingness to compete for one another. I think it starts with that."
Why has it happened so often here, though?
"The details are obviously not sharp," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "It's not our group and not where we want to be. We're going to rebound as a group, we're going to come ready to work. We have a great group in this locker room. We all believe in each other. We're going to rebound, just come prepared to come work for each other in practice Friday and obviously Saturday at the game."
Former Blue Scottie Upshall said it best in a tweet and I agree with the soft hockey, and that's inexcusable for a team that was a playoff team a year ago and looking to maintain its stature:
* Habits weren't sufficient enough, play looked very soft - The Blues had their fair share of attacks at the Hawks, and had a goalie (Arvid Soderblom) they'd been able to beat up quite a bit (5-0-0), but the times they either didn't funnel pucks to the goal or were not connecting in the O-zone, they were getting counter-attacked often and giving up prime scoring chances.
It occurred often in the second period when Chicago outscored the Blues 3-0 and at one point held an 8-1 edge in shots on goal.
"Habits and details aren't there, especially at home," Schenn said. "We have to take pride in playing for one another, especially at home, make it a hard place to play. I take full responsibility for that. Obviously I can help with that and lead the charge. I think one of the things you can control is your compete level and your habits. We, and I, have to be better at that."
Montgomery mentioned reloads of the puck, and it was not near good enough, which in turn allowed Chicago to play the way the Blues were playing in the two games they won: on their toes, their front feet and transitioning in five-man units.
"We'll watch the tape, we'll look back at it," Montgomery said. "This game got away from us because of our own habits and actions.
"Reloads and gaps are a big part of how we want to play. The reloads were not consistent and that makes it hard on the defensemen."
* Mailloux's struggles continue - It's tough to pick on one particular player when so many did not meet expectations, particularly that top line of Neighbours, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich, which was a combined minus-6 with three shots on goal and on the ice for four goals against.
But for Mailloux, who was a team-worst minus-4 Wednesday and now is a minus-7 for the season in just four games, he's been on the ice for exactly zero goals-for at 5-on-5 and seven against.
He coughed up the puck trying to rim it around the net early in the second period that was picked off by Connor Bedard that led to Reichel's go-ahead goal that made it 3-2 at 2:49 that started a snowball affect for the game:
I'll say it over and over that comparing Mailloux to Zack Bolduc is like comparing apples to oranges. One is a defenseman that has barely scratched the surface, one is a forward who has more experience and who was ahead of the curve as far as teaching last season that was coming on.
The Blues believe in the 22-year-old and understand this is going to take time.
"He's going to be a great player," Parayko said. 'You watch him skate, you watch him shoot, he's steady, he's strong back there. There's no doubt about that. I'm looking forward to watching that guy grow and become a dominant force back there. I have full faith in him. He's a great player. We're just all looking forward to watching him grow, but at the end of the day, it's a group effort no matter what. That's the bottom line. We're all wearing the Bluenote together.
"It's got to be difficult obviously going to a new team and you want to play well and things like that. He's a great player. I have full confidence in him. I'm just looking forward to watching him continue to grow and just keep building."
We know the offensive capabilities Mailloux has, but here's an example of a pinch that went awry when he pinched along the right boards, the puck was tipped out and Mailloux is caught out of the play and Frank Nazar turns it onto a goal with Neighbours trying to chase him down when Philip Broberg probably should have:
They're details that - again - with time will be worked out. By the way, Mailloux did get physical on the play when Neighbours was tackled after the goal when he was trying to defend Hofer after Nazar ran into him in the net.
There are options the Blues will have to look at here.
Do they sit Mailloux in favor of Matthew Kessel? Do they go with seven defensemen inserting Kessel into the lineup to watch some of Mailloux's minutes? Or ... do they send him down to Springfield since he is waiver's exempt? Remember, GM Doug Armstrong said it's Mailloux's job to lose.
"He's played 11 games or 12 games," Schenn said. "There's a lot of pressure on him coming from outside. I believe in Logan Mailloux, we believe in Logan Mailloux, and the organization does. I think people are always going to look at this one-for-one. It's not a one-for-one. It's a long-term plan, and he's a great player.
"Like I said, he's played four games for us and it's a new organization ... new coaching, new system, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. Honestly, I think he's getting ... there's no reason to put pressure on the kid. He's young, and he's getting his feet wet, and he's going to be a good player for a long time, and I firmly believe that."