Despite rectifying – for one powerplay – the goal scoring drought, the Blues fell to the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 tonight. This loss leaves them one game under .500 overall, and concludes the road trip at 2-2. What started off with some gumption de-evolved into sloppy play, an apparent lack of interest, and a failure to communicate. Heck, it took three Blues crashing the net (and almost winding up in the net) to score the powerplay goal that was inexplicably credited to Chris Stewart the Birthday Boy.
There’s nothing to be said about this game that I haven’t said before: communicate, fix the special teams, and play with some consistency. Tonight you could factor in winning some face-offs as well. Halak looked better, especially in the third period where he returned to something resembling his form The defense in front of him didn’t give him much of a hand though, giving Edmonton’s kids way, way too many chances.
The Blues don’t play again until Friday night, when the Vancouver Canucks visit. That gives them four days to work, practice, and try to fix these problems. Granted, they’ve had almost a month to do so, but maybe four uninterrupted days’ work will help.