Blues fall out of wild card contention with third straight home loss

ST. LOUIS — If there was ever a game the St. Louis Blues needed the most it was this one.

The Blues needed to win Monday’s game against Vancouver to stay ahead of the Canucks in the wild card chase.

Instead, the Blues fell 5-2 on Jan. 27, have now lost three straight home games, and are four points behind Vancouver and could either be as little as five points or as many as 11 points behind the Calgary Flames by the time they play their next game on Friday, Jan. 31, at Colorado.

“The common theme that I’ve seen is a lack of energy,” Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said. “I don’t know if it’s a malaise, and that’s my fault. I have to get the group to engage more.

“That’s where I have to look at myself and have to look in the mirror and ask, What do I have to do different to get them to battle through adversity?’”

Montgomery is the Blues’ third coach since the start of last season. St. Louis went from firing the coach of the 2019 Stanley Cup championship team to rewarding the overachieving interim coach with a contract to then firing him once Montgomery became available.

Montgomery had an otherwise successful tenure with the Boston Bruins before being sacked after a slow start to this season. With a five-year deal signed and sealed, he was seen as the hope for a franchise mired in the middle of the pack.

However, is it in the bench boss’ control to turn the veteran group around?

“As players, we’re responsible for getting ourselves ready to play and mentally and physically getting ourselves in the right mindset to go out and compete and play meaningful games,” said Blues defenseman Cam Fowler. “Right now, these games are important, so as players, that’s something that we have to take responsibility for.”

How the Blues start games has been a common cause for concern. The last time the Blues established a lead was the last time they won a game, a 5-4 overtime thriller at Vegas on Jan. 20. St. Louis fell to a 2-0 first period hole in each of the previous three games, all on home ice.

The power play has also been a problem for the Blues, not just on Monday, but throughout the season. The Canucks scored on both power plays and while the Blues had five power plays during the game, they scored only once and also gave up a shorthanded goal.

“We’re just in one of those phases right now where if there is a breakdown and we’re giving something up, it just seems like it’s going on the back of the net right now,” Fowler said. “You go through difficult stretches on special teams and we’re in one of those with the PK right now.”

The Blues have given up 35 power play goals, which ties them with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the seventh most in the NHL.

“We just seem to be a split second off right now, and that seems to be the difference between killing it off or giving it up,” Fowler said.

Conor Garland scored two goals for Vancouver, while J.T. Miller, Pius Suter, and Tyler Myers each found the net against the Blues.

Kevin Lankinen made 24 saves for the Canucks, while the Blues switched from Jordan Binnington (18 saves) to Joel Hofer (10 saves) midway through the game.

Dylan Holloway and Colton Parayko scored for St. Louis. Holloway now has 16 goals and increased his point total to 38, both are second among the Blues.

The next five games don’t get any easier for the Blues. St. Louis will travel to Colorado on Friday and Utah on Sunday before hosting Edmonton (Feb. 4) and Florida (Feb. 6), two teams who played in the previous Stanley Cup Final.

“As the saying goes, you can’t get too high, you can’t get too low,” Holloway said. “We’re dealing through adversity and we just got to keep our heads up and we got to keep grinding and keep playing the way we can play. We’re a good hockey team. We just got to piece it together more consistently.”