GDT Game 9: 10/25/18 | 7:00 PM CT | vs Blue Jackets | FSMW/K

[theohall]

ST. LOUIS -- The Blues are hoping home is where the heart is, or at least where a strong third period is.

St. Louis begins a seven-game home stand as it hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. The Blues come back to Enterprise Center ice after ending a three-game road trip with a thud by surrendering a third period lead and eventually losing in overtime against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday.

"We won the first period, we won the second period, and we lost the third period badly," Blues head coach Mike Yeo told NHL.com. "We lost the hockey game. We just didn't finish it off."

It's a familiar synopsis so far this season as the Blues blew a lead in the third period for the third time this season, a big reason why they stumble into the matchup with the Blue Jackets with a 2-3-3 record.

Blues goalie Jake Allen said the team needs to change its mentality.

"I think we're scared to lose games right now," Allen told NHL.com. "We're behind in the standings, we know that. We know that each point's crucial, and we're playing in the third period like we're scared to lose a game."

St. Louis made a couple of roster moves, sending forwards Sammy Blais and Robby Fabbri to its AHL affiliate in San Antonio.

Blais played in eight games this season for the Blues. Fabbri was sent out on a conditioning assignment as he attempts to return from a groin injury suffered during the preseason.

St. Louis won both meetings against Columbus last season and the Blue Jackets enter the contest after back-to-back 4-1 losses to the Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes.

Against Arizona on Tuesday, the Blue Jackets scored 31 seconds into the game but were outplayed the rest of the way.

"The plays are there to be made, we're not making them," left winger Nick Foligno told NHL.com. "We're just missing a guy's stick by an inch or we're not making the plays fast enough. We're cycling when we should be passing, passing when we should be cycling.

"We're out of sync like that. I don't know what it is."

Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella was not happy with his team's response against the Coyotes.

"The alarming thing to me about tonight's game is when (Arizona) realized they had a chance to win this one, they go up 3-1, they checked," Tortorella told NHL.com. "They checked hard and we didn't have an answer for that. That's the thing that bothered me the most about tonight's game, our willingness to get through checking.

"We have some work to do. We need to get a little fight in our game. That helps people have success, not wait for success to come to you. You've got to have a little determination in your game to have success. Good things will happen that way."

On a bright note, defenseman Seth Jones logged 27:24 of ice time in his season debut after recovering from a MCL sprain.

"I thought I made some good offensive plays, some good defensive plays," Jones told NHL.com. "I don't know how much I played but I felt pretty good out there."

[gaijin]

Blues goalie Jake Allen said the team needs to change its mentality.

Hm. I can think of an easy way to do that.

[glen a richter]

The leader sets the tone, it's true of any place where one person is in charge of many people. If the coach isn't getting the players to change their mentality, the coach needs to go. It's not on Allen to do that. He can only do what he can do or he can step up and be a locker room leader to the extent that he can, knowing a goalie can't be a captain. Obviously Pie isn't doing that swell a job being that leader, and if it's because of his triplets then he needs to rescind the C for the year.

As for tonight's game...

Blues 3 - O'Reilly, Schwartz
Jackets 2
Shootout

[ComradeT]

Looking at this team, I am not even sure who the leader is. No one strikes me as a guy who can light a fire under this team.

[theohall]

Projected lines brought to you by #YeoMustGo

Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
Sanford-O'Reilly-Perron
Maroon-Bozak-Steen
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Kyrou

Dunn-Pietrangelo
Edmundson-Parayko
Brouwmeester-Schmaltz

Bortuzzo was placed on IR.

(side note: if Gunnarson comes back, there is likely a cap issue considering they are over and the majority of the cap relief is from Gunnar's LTIR status. They are 1,380,029 over right now and Gunnarson is providing 2.9M in cap relief. Add that 2.9M to the cap when he returns. Something has to give, although it looks like sending Jerabek and any of Sanford/Sundqvist/Soshnikov/Kyrou/Barbashev to San Antonio should get them under. Part of the problem, only Kyrou and Sanford - the two best players in that list - are waivers exempt. We shall see if the Blues continue to keep the best players on the roster and test pushing guys through waivers like they did with Thorburn and Jaskin.)

[glen a richter]

Thomas is getting the Andy Murray-David Perron treatment, it seems. Well, so much for his career. Thanks, Yeo.

[Robb_K]

Nice banging in the rebound by Tarasenko! Blues lead 1-0! I hope that gets both him and The Blues started on a hot streak! Their PP surely is playing well now!

[Robb_K]

Schwartz!!! 2-0 Blues! Goals will come in bunches now!

[Robb_K]

Good period by The Blues. Should be 2-0. They almost had the scoring penalty killed, but with a couple seconds left, allowed an easy entry, and too many players down the middle screened Allen. I hope The Blues can keep up the energy all game long.

[Robb_K]

Steen scores!!! Blues within 1!!!

[Robb_K]

Blues need to score on this PP! Great save by Korpisalo!

[glen a richter]

This team blows. Fire Yeo at intermission.

[gaijin]

Who knew we were a better team with Berglund, Sobotka and Thorburn?

[Robb_K]

Well, at least it's nice to see Sanford score. Only 3 more goals while shutting out The Jackets needed to tie it up!

[Toasted Oates]

How will the Mike Yeo area be remembered?

[gaijin]

How will the Mike Yeo area be remembered?

Hopefully it won't.

[theohall]

There is one line on this team playing responsibly at both ends of the ice while also generating scoring chances - Sanford/ROR/Perron. Zero even strength goals against that line. The top line - Tarasenko is playing lazy on the backcheck. 3rd line - that's what happens when you put three 30+ year old players on the same line and they get caught deep in the offensive zone. Does Maroon get sent to San Antonio for that awful play at center ice that led to a goal like happened to Blais? 4th line - in their 3 shifts in the 1st period, they iced the puck 3 times. Yeah, adding Sundqvist sure fixed that problem.

There are zero consequences for veteran forwards on this team not putting forth effort at both ends of the ice, other than losing games. Meanwhile, young players get benched and sent down for making one mistake in their limited ice time.

#YeoMustGo

[Robb_K]

The Blues aren't playing hard for each other, and most of the forwards (other than O'Reilly's line) are not backchecking. The gaps between the forwards and defencemen are too wide. There isn't much fight in this team. Almost ALL that is on the coach. And if the players aren't doing what he's telling them to do, it's STILL on him, for not doing something to change what's going on.

Another problem: Perron said it all: "The Blues are squeezing their sticks and worrying too much. They aren't having fun playing. Playing hockey should be fun."

I agree with this 100%. If you are a hockey player, that's what you live for. You enjoy playing, and would be playing even if you couldn't make a living from playing. You should be enjoying every game, You should not be worried about performing. You should be skating freely and playing naturally, by instinct. If that isn't happening, it HAS to be the relationship between coaching and the players. Getting rid of the head coach and his hires can only help. The players are not playing for the coach, or each other. They are playing a LOT worse than their talent on paper. THAT's also on the head coach.

Not that Allen has been playing terribly, but he almost never bails out his teammates with great saves, and lets in a few bad goals almost every game. He also hasn't been improving at all for several years. I've given up any hope that he'll snap out of his lack of the mental fortitude to handle a starting NHL goaltender position. I hope Blues management is rid of him and his contract before the start of next season. I hope Husso, Sanford, Kyrou, Thomas, Dunn, Schmaltz, and other young players can get a lot more playing time, especially if the team is not going to make the playoffs, or will get in, but not win more than one playoff series, anyway.

[theohall]

And the Blues are 4 points out of a playoff spot with only two games to be played through Nov 1st. Guess what? Almost all the teams ahead of the Blues play at least 2 games also... So... the Blues have to win both and hope all the teams ahead of them manage not to win. Otherwise, there is an 87% chance the Blues don't make the playoffs based on data since the 05-06 season.

Heck, Edmonton has played 2 fewer games and has the same 7 points.

[theohall]

Tarasenko has some choice quotes in the media about it not being on the coach, they all need to work harder, and we will see on Saturday.
http://twitter.com/jprutherford/status/1055672825418276864 Well, I sure as heck Tarasenko learns how to friggin' back check. He was awful defensively tonight - coasting back to the defensive zone when the guy he might have been able to defend scored or had a primary assist. When your star player isn't back checking, what message does it send to the rest of the team??

Maroon needs to sit a game. He is awful inside the Blues end of the ice from the center line in. No wonder the Oilers struggled defensively when that kind of play kept him on their top line.

And this line of 30 year olds, needs broken up to give younger, faster players more ice time vice giving these old, slow players who can't keep up if caught, even at center ice, 17-18 minutes per night.