The Blues have trimmed away any cushion.
In the standings, they didn’t build much in the first half of the season before Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Flyers. On the ice, they’ve asked their goaltenders to be almost perfect in order to steal a win. The grace other teams have granted themselves either through previous performance or through puck possession hasn’t existed in St. Louis recently.
“We didn’t have enough effort in our game in the hard areas,†Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “We continued to mismanage the puck. That is making it difficult on our team to have to defend, which makes it easy for them to get more offensive zone time, more shots on the net.â€
Owen Tippett scored the game-winning goal for Philadelphia with 5:33 left in the third period, giving the Flyers a lead in a game in which they outshout the Blues 42-30. The goal was one of Tippett’s 10 shots on the evening, and his backhand punctuated his move around Justin Faulk in the slot.
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Joel Hofer wasn’t beaten often on Monday night as he made 38 saves, but he suffered his third straight loss.
“I was just off-angle and thought he would cut back,†Hofer said. “But (he) made a good play and scored.â€
Hofer was the primary reason why the Blues were in a tied game late in the third period. He stopped all 13 shots he faced in the first period. He made 18 saves on 20 shots he faced in the second period. Hofer dealt with Flyers odd-man rushes and breakaways. He scrambled to make some saves in tight.
Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling and Joel Farabee (empty-net) also scored for the Flyers, taking advantage of Blues miscues. Laughton and Poehling each scored as the result of Torey Krug offensive-zone turnovers. Farabee scored in the final minute of the game when Brayden Schenn turned the puck over.
“We didn’t play below the top of the circles enough and work them down there,†Schenn said. “I just felt like that forced us to play a lot of time, whether it was in the neutral zone or in our end, and not enough in their end. Our goalie gave us a chance tonight, but we know we’ve got to be better than that.â€
Krug finished minus-4 on the night as he was on the ice for every Philadelphia goal.
On Laughton’s goal, Krug tried to keep a puck in at the offensive blue line but instead whipped the puck to Flyers defenders. The play developed into a 3 on 2, and Garnet Hathaway’s shot from distance ricocheted off Hofer’s left pad and directly to a waiting Laughton.
On Poehling’s goal — which came after Oskar Sundqvist tied the game and with just 6.2 seconds remaining in the second period — Krug mishandled a puck, and then gave it away to Rasmus Ristolainen in front of the Flyers net.
“We don’t have to look to make plays in high ice at that point,†Bannister said. “We put our D in a difficult position, our D made a play that shouldn’t have been made. Should have just went on the wall, behind the net and we’re safe.â€
Egor Zamula put the puck on net, and Hofer had trouble handling it, as it deflected off his glove, and Poehling was able to tap it out of midair off Jordan Kyrou and into the Blues net.
“I got a piece of it, and I guess it just went behind me,†Hofer said. “Obviously, one I’d like to have back.â€
The loss to the Flyers was part of a larger trend for the Blues of being badly outplayed, but remaining in games thanks to goaltending.
It was the fifth straight game that the Blues have been outshot, and the third straight that they have been outshot by double-digits. In an overtime loss to Boston on Saturday, they were outshot by 12. In a win over the Rangers on Thursday, they were outshot by 22.
The last game that the Blues had a shot advantage was in a 2-1 win over Vancouver on Jan. 4, when they had a 32-26 edge.
“Our forecheck has to be better, that’s one thing,†Schenn said. “I think we’re too one-and-done and then they’re breaking the puck out too easy on us. They’re coming at us hard, and we’re spending more time in our end.â€
Because the Blues haven’t had the puck very often in the last week, their goalies have been given almost impossible assignments in order to win games. Since Thursday, no NHL team has allowed more than the 39.24 shots per 60 minutes at 5 on 5 that the Blues have surrendered. The Blues are also last in the NHL in controlling just 38.46% of shot attempts at 5 on 5 in that stretch.
Still, the Blues escaped games vs. the Rangers, Bruins and Flyers with three points, thanks to their goaltending. Schenn said “you have a chance to win every single night†when Hofer and Jordan Binnington are playing as well as they have recently.
“Goalies have been good for us all year, especially in games like this, you have to find a way to get one point where we weren’t as good as we need to be in front of him,†Schenn said.