ST. LOUIS — The Blues continue to have the toughest time turning a corner.
After they were in control for most of a 5-2 win over Washington on Tuesday, the Blues took on a Flyers’ team that was 27th in the NHL in points and had lost 13 in a row on the road, leaving them 0 for 2022. After seeing the blueprint for what they needed to do on Thursday, the Blues went off script and lost to the Flyers 5-2 before another sellout crowd at Enterprise Center that was able to head for the exits early.
It was the latest in a line of games where the Blues have struggled against teams at the bottom of the standings. Against the bottom six teams in the NHL standings as of Thursday, the Blues have lost to all of them once except for Seattle, which still has won more shot at them. These teams may be playing loose because they have nothing to play for but their jobs, but other teams seem to have figured out how to beat them.
The Blues got goals from Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexei Toropchenko, but not David Perron, who saw his goal streak snapped at seven games. Jordan Binnington got the start in goal after three straight Ville Husso starts and, after beating Philadelphia earlier this season, is 0-3-1 in his past four.
The Blues got Tarasenko and Robert Thomas back in the lineup after both missed the Tuesday game, but the Blues will be without defenseman Torey Krug for a week and maybe more with a hand injury he suffered on Tuesday.
The Blues fell behind 2-0 in the first and could never catch up. They went into the third period down a goal and had several chances to get even mid-period, as they established not only zone time, but puck-in-front-of-the goal time but could not get it in.
Then, as they looked to be mounting another charge, Justin Faulk had a pass go into Thomas’ skates entering the Flyers zone and the puck turned over. Kevin Hayes carried the puck into the Blues zone, pushed Faulk away to create space and one-handed the puck on goal, where Binnington stopped it but Hayden Hodgson, in his first NHL game, swept in to put in the rebound and make it 4-2.
Philadelphia added an empty-net goal by Joel Farabee, who broke the puck out of his own end and outwaited Faulk before scoring.
The Blues’ first period was not a good one. The offense didn’t generate much, just four shots on goal, and the defense was lax enough to give up two goals. On the first Flyers goal, Travic Konecny skated the puck out of his own zone, with nary a touch or even a feint in his direction by the Blues, into the Blues zone, got past Robert Bortuzzo and postage stamped it into the top right corner with 13:23 to go in the period. With 5:09 to go, it was 2-1. Cam York had a shot from the slot that was blocked by Binnington, but the rebound came back out in front and with Binnington down, Patrick Brown had plenty of net to shoot at and didn’t miss.
Blues coach Craig Berube sent his fourth line out to start the second period, and 20 seconds in, they had a shot on goal and had instigated a skirmish in front of the net. Seventy-two seconds in, the Blues had a power play, and 35 seconds into that, some quick passing produced a goal. Shortly after Vladimir Tarasenko was denied on a good scoring chance by a lunging Martin Jones, the Blues re-established themselves in the zone. Perron got the puck to Ryan O’Reilly, who got it back to Tarasenko, who had as much space and time as a forward on a power play could want and beat Jones to cut the lead to 2-1.
The goal was Tarasenko’s 21st of the season and gave him 497 points in his career, breaking a tie with Alexander Steen for sole possession of fifth place in Blues history. Next up is Garry Unger, who with 575 is a season away.
Brandon Saad had a breakaway chance denied that could have tied the game and a promising break with just under 8 minutes to go that ended when Pavel Buchnevich’s pass was broken up. Philadelphia quickly turned the puck the other way. Konecny took a shot from outside that Binnington blocked but couldn’t control and it got behind and rolled on edge into the net before Colton Parayko could get his stick on it.
The fourth line got the Blues a goal back with 4:00 to go in the second. Jones went behind his goal to play a puck but couldn’t handle it. Logan Brown came in on the forecheck, got the puck and passed out front to Alexei Toropchenko who quickly shot it in for his second career NHL goal, both in the past three games. For Brown, who has been a scratch more often than not in 2022, it was his first point since Dec. 17.
Niko Mikkola continued his role as the angriest Blue, getting tied up along the boards with Joel Farabee, which led to the two dropping their gloves, but before they could get started, a linesman had separated them and instead of fighting penalties they both got unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
