ST. LOUIS – Consistency and desperation, desperation and consistency.
Two words often spoken but not gained enough on a regular basis when it comes to this year’s St. Louis Blues.
Such was the case again on Friday when the Blues scored five goals in a game but lost, 6-5 in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers. They’ll look to get right back on the horse on Saturday when the Blues (6-8-4) host the Vegas Golden Knights (7-4-5) to close out a four-game homestand at Enterprise Center (7 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
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Consistency of stringing consecutive wins together seems to be an issue, and it’s only happened once this season through 18 games (Games 2 and 3).
“Yes, very surprised,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think it’s a mental attitude. I have to take ownership of making sure that they trust the habits and want to do it. And then there’s the mental component of attitude of game management goes into it, and that’s a habit too. It’s playing the game the right way. I think four of their five goals are directly the result of poor habits or puck management. And we gained our leads by good game habits and management, and players made plays.”
Montgomery mentioned desperation in his postgame press conference on Friday.
“The urgency we need has to come from within,” he said. “It has to be communicated more consistently by the coaching staff and the players have got to take ownership of owning moments.”
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The Blues will implement three lineup changes for Saturday’s game.
Joel Hofer will start in goal after Jordan Binnington made 26 saves on Friday.
Nick Bjugstad and Tyler Tucker, each a healthy scratch Friday for the first time this season, will come in replacing Mathieu Joseph and Hunter Skinner, who made his NHL debut on Friday, respectively.
Joseph did not see the ice for the final 9:31 of the third period, which included a game-tying goal at 5-5 by Owen Tippett. Joseph’s last two shifts in the game were goals against, including an unfortunate fourth goal in which Matthew Kessel slipped and fell in the D-zone with the puck.
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“Yes, he’s not the only one that could have done better in that instance (on the fifth goal),” Montgomery said. “He’s the first forward back; we’d like that play killed when Zegras cuts it back initially. And then he’s supposed to stay low, so he should have been in the middle of the ice. Instead, him and ‘Torpo’ had to make a switch. And then our defensemen didn’t scope out quick enough. We had two at the net and they had four high. And then the slot play, if Joseph’s going to be high, he’s got to shoulder check and make sure he has that play. That’s the exact breakdown of the goal as it happens in our structure.”
The lineup is fluid and the Blues held an optional morning skate today that included six forwards (including Jake Neighbours), four defensemen and two goalies.
They ended the game on Friday playing Brayden Schenn between Dylan Holloway and Jordan Kyrou and could go back to that line again Saturday.
“I thought they gave us a lot of juice,” Montgomery said. “They obviously had the one goal as a line, which gave us a lead 4-3, but I also thought they had one play where they had two chances, the one-timer by Kyrou from the Schenn pass and then we had the rebound off of it. They could have made it 6-3. Some of those things were good to see, and they didn’t spend a lot of time in the D-zone.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Dalibor Dvorsky-Pius Suter-Nick Bjugstad
Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Nathan Walker
Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier and Hunter Skinner. Jake Neighbours (leg) is out.
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Golden Knights Projected Lineup:
Ivan Barbashev-Jack Eichel-Braeden Bowman
Pavel Dorofeyev-Tomas Hertl-Mitch Marner
Brandon Saad-Brett Howden-Reilly Smith
Cole Reinhardt-Colton Sissons-Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin-Kaedan Korczak
Jeremy Lauzon-Zach Whitecloud
Akira Schmid will start in goal; Carl Lindbom will be the backup.
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Healthy scratches include Alexander Holtz and Ben Hutton. Adin Hill (lower body), William Karlsson (lower body) and Mark Stone (upper body) are out.
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