ST. LOUIS — Blues fans got their first look at life without Ryan O’Reilly on Saturday, and it wasn’t pretty.
The Colorado Avalanche, as usual, were quick and talented. The Blues were outmanned.
Getting two goals from defenseman Bowen Byram, one of which came on the power play, the Avalanche posted a 4-1 win over the Blues at Enterprise Center.
Sammy Blais scored the only goal for St. Louis, his second since coming to the Blues as part of the recent trade for Vladimir Tarasenko. Colorado (30-19-5) also got goals from Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichuskin.
The Blues, who entered the game with a three-game winning streak, fell back to .500 at 26-26-3. Their four-game homestand over, they play at Ottawa at 1 p.m. Sunday and then head to Carolina for a Tuesday game.
The Blues entered the game minus Torey Krug, who was a pregame scratch due to an undisclosed injury. Robert Bortuzzo replaced him in the lineup.
They finished the game without Pavel Buchnevich, who left the game once, returned for a stretch, and then left again with a lower-body injury. And in the third period, Logan Brown left with an upper-body injury, bleeding from the face, leaving the Blues with 10 forwards.
Prior to the game, the team called up Nikita Alexandrov and Matthew Highmore from Springfield of the American Hockey League, and both players will join the team Sunday in Ottawa.
On Saturday, Jordan Binnington played well, keeping the Blues in the contest through two periods. Blais' goal, with 4:32 left in the second period made it a 2-1 contest and gave the Blues some life.
But Nichuskin’s goal, just 2:56 into the third period, allowed Colorado to regain control of the game.
