GDT Game 13: 11/6/18|7:00 PM CT|vs Hurricanes|FSMW/KMOX

[theohall]

ST. LOUIS -- Any momentum the St. Louis Blues may have gained during their modest two-game winning streak came to a screeching halt Saturday night.

The Blues showed little fight in a 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on home ice on Saturday, getting outshot 45-16. The team was booed off the ice by what was left from the crowd of 17,767 fans for the second time this season.

"It's not good enough," Blues defenseman and captain Alex Pietrangelo told NHL.com after the game. "I'm trying to find answers here, right?"

The Blues have given up 34 goals in eight home games, averaging a robust 4.25 goals against at Enterprise Center.

The Wild took a quick 2-0 lead with first period goals 45 seconds apart and never looked back.

"This is the only thing that's a little bit disturbing is that for a division game and playing at home, we didn't really seem to really get any response tonight," Blues head coach Mike Yeo told NHL.com. "That was disappointing. We'll have to find out why and we have to make sure that we come back, we're trying to build not just a winning game and a system and all that kind of stuff, it's culture stuff that we have to build, and so we have to make sure that we respond now."

The Blues, at 4-5-3 (11 points), are mired in last place in the Central division. Only the Los Angeles Kings (4-8-1, 9 points) have a worse record in the Western Conference.

"You give up a couple goals early, it doesn't matter, teams are going to score goals," Pietrangelo told NHL.com. "We've got to find a way to kind of turn that thing around and took a couple penalties in a row there. ... I think we were too complicated with the puck. ... They threw a lot of pucks at the net. Sixteen shots or whatever we had, that's not good enough on our end."

The Blues hope for an improved effort when they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. St. Louis won both meetings against the Hurricanes last season.

The Hurricanes (6-6-2, 14 points) are attempting to snap a four-game losing streak and are coming off of a 3-0 loss at Vegas on Sunday.

"We simply just weren't quite all there tonight. We don't have the luxury of having a 50-60 goal scorer who can take the game over. We have to do it all by committee," Hurricanes right winger Justin Williams told NHL.com after the loss to Vegas. "We weren't all clicking tonight, and as a result, goose egg."

Getting shutout by the Golden Knights didn't sit well with Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour.

"Tonight was probably ... the game I didn't like the most of all of them," Brind'Amour told NHL.com. "Even saying that, it was a grind game. There wasn't a lot going on for either team, but we've got to try to find ways to put the puck in the net. That's been the challenge here."

[glen a richter]

Blues 1 - Fabbri
Whalers - 6

I haven't paid any kind of detailed attention to the Hurricanes in a long time... did they bring Brass Bonanza over from Hartford or did they leave it there to die? Probably the greatest team song in the history of team songs.

[theohall]

Projected Lineup

Forwards

Schwartz - O'Reilly - Tarasenko
Fabbri - Thomas - Perron
Sanford - Bozak - Steen
Maroon - Barbashev - Sundqvist

Defense

Gunnarsson - Pietrangelo
Dunn - Parayko
Edmundson - Schmaltz

Goalie

Johnson

[glen a richter]

So after the Blues lose tonight, there's 2 off days until the next game. Ample time to fire Yeo and get Q in here tomorrow morning to sign a contract, run a practice and right the ship. Get things moving in the right direction and the 3rd game of Q's return would be on the road against Chicago. Sounds about good for him to exact a little revenge on the team that unceremoniously dumped him despite his giving that franchise more Cups during his tenure than the last 60 years combined.

[theohall]

There is a really good article on the Athletic citing all the things Bowman did that essentially ran the team into it's current state. He basically did nothing to build the team. The core of all the Cups teams was built by Dale Tallon. Bowman just tried to keep enough of it together trying to keep them under the cap.

Here is an excerpt:

Is it Quenneville’s fault the Blackhawks got older and slower? Did Quenneville trade away Hjalmarsson and Panarin in losing deals? Did Quenneville give up Teuvo Teravainen to get out of a year of Bryan Bickell’s onerous contract? Did Quenneville deal away Vinnie Hinostroza just to dump off Marian Hossa’s contract? Did Quenneville swing and miss on the Phil Danault trade to Montreal? Did Quenneville sign a No. 6 defenseman (Brandon Manning) and a 39-year-old forward (Chris Kunitz) in response to the Blackhawks’ worst season in more than a decade? Did Quenneville sit on more than $5 million of cap space this summer rather than spend it on obvious holes in the lineup?

One of the new assistants, Barry Smith, was a guy Bowman tried to force onto Quenneville's coaching staff in 11-12, Bowman's 2nd season as GM. This was a move by Bowman to gain more control over the team - which did not go over well with Q. Q won out and the guy got kicked out of practices, then Q won 2 more Cups with the Dale Tallon built team, in spite of Bowman's meddling.

Can you say scape goat?

But this is the Blues GDT.

So I know Johnson has to get some games. But now when the Blues lose to Carolina, Yeo has the built in backup goalie excuse no matter how bad the rest of the team plays in front of Johnson.

[beat2life]

As much as i want to see this team lose (ugh, can't believe I typed that...) so one of the final nails can be driven into the Yeo coffin, per usual we'll grind it out, pull off a win, and keep riding this crazy train down the tracks.

Blues 5
Canes 2

[Robb_K]

Good kill by The Blues, with Sundqvist getting a nice chance.

[Robb_K]

O'Reilly bangs in a nifty backhand pass from Tarasenko!!! Blues lead 1-0!!

[Robb_K]

Fabbri scores on a beautiful feed from Perron, on a 2 on 1 after The Canes hit the post!!!
Blues lead 2-0!!!

[Robb_K]

But O'Reilly scores with 4 seconds left!!!! Great response!! He blasted in a fine feed from Bozak!!! Blues lead 3-1!!! Good 1st Period.

[theohall]

That Fabbri goal - isn't it amazing what happens when the Blues forwards skate out of their own end with possession, instead of waiting for a pass beyond the center red line?

[Robb_K]

Blues need to score on this power play!

[Robb_K]

Good clutch kill. Good thing The Canes' 3 posters didn't go in, or The Blues would be trailing.

[Robb_K]

Blues back on the power play! Let's put this game away!

[Robb_K]

O'Reilly gets the hat trick with an empty-netter! Blues lead 4-1!!!

[Robb_K]

Good win!!! Johnson looked good.

[theohall]

While they won, I wouldn't call it a "good" win.

The Blues were still out-played the majority of the game. Where was any sustained offensive zone pressure? I certainly didn't see it. Badly out shot, again. If one looks at shot attempts - it's worse than the Wild game.

Goals for the Blues:
1 off of a dump, retrieve, quick pass
1 off of a rush
1 off of a PP
+ an empty net goal.

What happens when the Blues are out shot and out attempted in a game (AGAIN) against team that hasn't lost 4 in a row coming into the game and isn't the 24th ranked team in goals scored?

Predicting it doesn't go so well vs the Sharks who are 6th in goal scoring and 2nd in shot attempts and have better goaltending than Carolina. At least the Blues will be rested while San Jose will be playing the 2nd of a back-to-back. Let's see if Yeo is capable of using 3 days to prepare some sort of plan to beat the Sharks the way Boudreau dismantled the Blues. Doubt it happens.

[WaukeeBlues]

Glad my favorite hockey team won, disappointed the stupid coach gets a longer leash.