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Observations From Blues' 5-2 Loss Vs. Bruins

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St. Louis Blues fans, we have a problem.

Actually, it’s been a problem for quite some time, but the culmination, or frustration, however one wants to call it, boiled over on Thursday night.

The Blues looked disinterested, disoriented and disorganized. It resulted in a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Boston.

Pavel Buchnevich and Pius Suter scored for the Blues (9-12-7), who once again couldn’t crack more than two goals in a game for the ninth time in the past 10. Jordan Binnington, who was pulled in his last start when he allowed two goals on five shots in a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, made 22 saves.

Aleksanteri Kaskimaki made his NHL debut and was on the ice for the Buchnevich goal (more on him later).

Let’s go into the game observations:

* Where is the effort? – Rarely do I question effort. It’s usually execution that does in a game.

But on Thursday, effort comes into play.

The Blues are coming off having two days off between games, a rarity. And they won’t have that again until Christmas break. So Thursday started a stretch of 11 games in 19 days.

So being on front end of it, where was the urgency? Where was the energy? Where was … yes … the effort?

Boston (16-13-0) was playing without their best players in this game, including David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy due to injuries, and No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman was getting the night off for Joonas Korpisalo.

Yes, the Blues are playing a few players short themselves, but not nearly of that caliber, and coming out with a good start was imperative.

But just look at the first goal scored by Alex Steeves at 6:30 of the first period to make it 1-0.

First off, it was another bad line change by the Blues, but the urgency of two forwards in the neutral zone, and two defensemen on the ice never challenged the play into the zone, then things were allowed to play out on the lefthand side with nobody hustling back to pick up Steeves at the backdoor and he slams the shot past Binnington:

It was a precursor of things to come.

And on Morgan Geekie’s goal at 11:25 that made it 2-0, there were two defensemen along the corner boards (Colton Parayko and Philip Broberg) trying to win a wall battle with one player (Steeves), whose effort and determination enabled him to pop the puck to Elias Lindholm, and he found Geekie open in the slot, a pass that Dalibor Dvorsky couldn’t get enough on. But once again, it was way too easy:

The effort and determination of winning wall and/or board battles continues to be a sore spot, and in this point of the season, it shouldn’t be.

* So many defensive breakdowns; why is there so much disconnect at this juncture in the season – The Blues actually get the kind of start they needed early in the second when Buchnevich made it 2-1 at 1:59, after Parayko jumped a pass along the O-zone wall and curled around the net to find Buchnevich for a one-timer from the left circle:

You’re back in the game just like they were looking for.

But the next three goals scored by the Bruins, hoo boy.

Viktor Arvidsson cracked one off the right side wall at 6:04 made it 3-1, but it was the buildup that was more baffling than anything.

How does Mason Lohrei get all that free ice uncontested from his zone all the way into the Blues’ zone, gets a shot off from the top of the left circle that Binnington blockered to the right wall that Arvidsson corralled?:

How does a guy get that much free ice?

That’s where the disconnect comes in. Guys backing into the zone, forwards playing too spread out allowing so much free ice, easy breakouts.

It’s still happening. This was the 28th game of the season.

And for Pavel Zacha, the first of his two goals, there’s a cross ice pass that is there because of a large gap for Zacha to move into the Blues’ zone, cut to the middle of the ice, three skaters around him with no resistance, and a fourth getting in there late, and I’m not putting that on Kaskimaki because this is his first game, and he has teammates on the ice that should be setting an example of hard work and being connected. But that goal scored from the high slot over Binnington’s glove hand made it 4-1 at 12:26, and this team’s penchant – or lack thereof – scoring goals, it was game over:

And the icing on the cake when Jake Neighbours was called for interference at 19:45, there’s 15 seconds to close a period out.

Even after losing a face-off, the puck was at the blue line with 5.5 seconds left. There's no way the Bruins could work it into the left face-off circle (they did), get an uncontested shot from there (they did), collect the rebound with only one player around the puck (they did) and get it to the low slot off the edge of the right circle (they did):

It boils down to defensive breakdowns, disconnect and lack of execution. It’s 5-1 at that point rubbing salt in the wound.

* This was supposed to be Kaskimaki’s night – The 2022 third-round pick made his rookie lap at one of the top venues around the league. It was supposed to be a special night for the forward.

But Blues teammates didn’t give Kaskimaki, who was a minus-1 and played 15:17 with a shot on goal and a blocked shot, much to be happy about.

Sure, he’s thankful to finally get to the NHL, and I didn’t think Kaskimaki, who played with Buchnevich and Dvorsky on a line, looked out of place, but he only has to go up from here.

Pius Suter, who missex the past two games, did get on the board with his seventh ay 9:07 of the third period but too little, too late:

* Needless to say, Blues coach Jim Montgomery was none too pleased from his comments to media after the game, along with Binnington and Parayko:

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