Blues can't recover from early struggles in Minnesota
A nasty habit of slow starts figured to catch up to the Blues sooner or later.
It took a careless pass from Jaden Schwartz and a few fortunate bounces, but Minnesota made St. Louis pay for its sixth straight scoreless first period in a 6-3 loss Saturday in St. Paul. The Blues hadn't given up a first-period goal in five games until former St. Louis forward Chris Stewart intercepted Schwartz's pass to the high slot and beat Brian Elliott on a breakaway.
The Wild would take a 2-0 lead into the second period and extend it to 4-0 before St. Louis finally scored, far too late to avoid a third loss in its past five games. But late goals have recently been the downfall for the Blues, who saw a pair of pucks go into the net off the sticks of veteran defensemen Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo.
"Whether they get fluke bounces or not, it doesn't matter," Paul Stastny told FOX Sports Midwest analyst Darren Pang and play-by-play announcer John Kelly on the Blues Live postgame show. "Throughout the year that happens, but you've just got to keep going and keep battling and it wasn't enough."
Minnesota also ended a remarkable streak of 11 straight road games in which St. Louis scored first. The Blues failed to gain a point only once during that stretch, and they'll look to get back on track Sunday at Detroit.
An early goal sure would provide a nice boost.
HAT TRICK
• Playoff preview? The Blues and Wild could be quite familiar with each other by the end of April.
Watch the Blues Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every St. Louis Blues game on FOX Sports Midwest.
They're scheduled to meet for the third time in less than a month at Scottrade Center on the final day of the regular season, which could end up serving as little more than a warmup scrimmage. If Minnesota can hang onto the top wild-card spot and St. Louis stays on top of the Central Division without catching Anaheim, the two teams would face off again in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It wouldn't be an ideal year for the Blues' first-ever postseason matchup with the Wild, who have posted a league-best 22-6-2 record since Jan. 13. They've climbed back from last place in the Central Division as recently as Feb. 7 and now have 37 road and overtime wins, compared with 36 for St. Louis.
Even more concerning, the Blues have been outscored 9-4 in two straight losses to Minnesota, which held a late lead in St. Louis' 3-2 shootout win in November. The Wild would need a remarkable finish to catch Chicago or Nashville in their last 10 games, especially with one of the league's toughest remaining schedules.
• Special teams success. St. Louis won the special teams battle in a regulation loss for the first time all season.
A lethargic power play came alive against the NHL's top penalty kill, scoring twice for the first time since Jan. 8. After the Blues didn't even get a shot off during Ryan Suter's two-minute minor in the first period, Vladimir Tarasenko and Stastny both found the net.
Meanwhile, the penalty kill stayed strong for St. Louis, which entered Saturday's game 16-0-2 when outscoring its opponents on special teams. The Blues gave up a power-play goal in the third period to stop a streak of 25 straight successful kills on the road, and they've still stopped 35 of the last 37 power plays overall.
• When line changes go wrong. On paper, moving Stastny up to center a line with Tarasenko and Schwartz makes a lot of sense.
One of the Blues' best passers should be a perfect fit with two of their top scorers, and Stastny keeps looking stronger after a slow start in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Jori Lehtera continues to struggle to find production, tallying only one point in his past six games.
But whenever coach Ken Hitchcock swaps Lehtera for Stastny, things always seem to go poorly. This time, the change lasted less than two periods as Minnesota raced out to a four-goal lead, though things could have gone much differently if Tarasenko had buried two solid early chances.
Instead, Tarasenko didn't score until the second period, when Lehtera had once again joined him and Schwartz. Lehtera even won a key faceoff to set up Tarasenko's spectacular puckhandling through the Minnesota defense that led to an easy rebound goal for Schwartz.
The temptation to move Stastny must be strong, particularly since his usual linemates, Dmitrij Jaskin and Patrik Berglund, have no points in their last nine games. But the switch keeps backfiring for the Blues.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.