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In describing the emphasis of the Blues’ practice session earlier this week, head coach Jim Montgomery used the term “battle practice.� He then made a distinction between the initial one-on-one battle and the “second quick battle,� the latter being the first player to rally to their teammate in pursuit of the puck.

It’s an area the Blues feel they “can have a lot of growth in,� Montgomery said. That’s a nicer way of saying they need more of it. They need more guys hungry to win those battles and hungry to help their teammates win those battles.

While it’s just one aspect of play — puck battles — it’s also indicative of the Blues’ situation. They need more guys rallying to pull themselves out of their collective funk, which is now four losses in their past five games after three consecutive losses on home ice.

Monday night, it took the Blues less than three minutes to fall behind. Their captain Brayden Schenn responded on the ensuing faceoff by dropping the gloves and cracking the Vancouver Canucks’ J.T. Miller in the face, undoubtedly unleashing a measure of frustration in the process.

That rather literal “battle� shown by Schenn ideally would have sparked something in his club and gotten teammates to rally.

“At the end of the day, you have to just try to lead by example and play up to my abilities and play the best I can,� Schenn said. “There’s a group of us that have to do that, and hopefully everyone else follows.�

Instead on Monday, the Blues fell behind by three goals before they put the puck in the net.

Yes, the Blues had a goal wiped away by a controversial goalie interference call late in that first period. But the spark shouldn’t have taken that long to ignite. Ultimately, it fizzled out to the tune of an uninspired 5-2 loss.

At times during this recent down stretch, the Blues have admittedly lacked energy.

A consistent level of play has also evaded them.

However, Schenn drew a clear line when asked if effort was part of that equation.

“I don’t think you ever question guys’ effort,� Schenn said after practice Thursday. “I think guys are always trying. Guys are always going to put their best foot forward. Some nights you don’t have your A-game or whatever, but I would never question effort.

“Consistency comes with a lot of things. It comes with confidence. It comes with energy. It comes with feel. It comes with wins, losses, all that types of stuff. We’ve got to worry about one win at a time and go from there.�

The Blues have five games remaining before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, but it feels like they’ve already reached a bit of an inflection point.

They’ve gone 7-8 in their past 15 games. Earlier this week, they traded away defenseman Scott Perunovich (New York Islanders) and waived veteran forward Brandon Saad.

In the aftermath of those moves, president of hockey operations and general manager Doug Armstrong spoke with reporters and acknowledged the club leaned heavily on a core group of players, including Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Schenn, as they embarked on their retool.

Armstrong also acknowledged that they’ve now changed the support players around that group as well as the head coach multiple times, and the results have remained stagnant.

That may, perhaps, prompt some reassessment.

“This year coming out of the Christmas break, we looked at our schedule (and) we saw teams that we felt we needed to get wins against — not just compete with but get wins against,� Armstrong said. “Now, we’re in January and we’re back in the same spot. We had an opportunity to gain ground and we lost ground. That’s doing soul searching for all of us.�

Soul searching from the front office shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The Blues will have had three days between games when they take the ice Friday night in Colorado. They’ve had a couple of hard practice days since Monday’s malfunction.

Thursday, Schenn called the players together and addressed them away from the coaching staff at center ice at the conclusion of practice.

“That’s leadership. That’s what you want,� Montgomery said. “Right? You want guys to huddle up and break at the end of practice and look each other in the eye and: ‘Hey, we went to work today.’�

Schenn has tallied 20 points in the 29 games since Montgomery took over, and he flipped his individual plus-minus from negative to positive. He ranks second on the team in hits this season. He’s left it all on the ice pretty consistently, especially since the coaching change.

Defenseman Colton Parayko is having a career year. Jordan Kyrou continues to be the most productive offensive weapon on the club. Newcomer Dylan Holloway has been a breakout performer.

So it’s not as if Schenn’s lead-by-example approach has fallen completely flat.

However, the Blues need more guys rallying to get in on the battle, and they need it now.