CALGARY, Alberta — With Ville Husso taking over the net by storm, Monday was a big night for Jordan Binnington — a night to reclaim some of his turf with the Blues.
After giving up four or more goals in four of his last six games, Binnington made his first start since Jan. 15 against Toronto.
Not that he got any help Monday, but it now is four or more goals allowed in five of seven games, and it happened before the second period against Calgary was even 3 1/2 minutes old. The Blues got away with a lot of bad habits Sunday in Vancouver because Husso was outstanding in goal. The bad habits continued Monday. And Husso wasn’t in goal to start.
Playing their third game in four days and their first back-to-back since mid-December, the Blues looked like a tired, uninspired team from the get-go. Over the first half of the season, the Blues had lost only two games by more than two goals — both by 4-1 scores. They really hadn’t played a bad game all season.
And then came Monday’s 7-1 loss to the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome to start the second half of the season. The Blues can only hope it’s not some kind of omen.
So the Blues limped back to St. Louis having won two of three games on this trip and with a 25-12-5 record. They play Calgary again on Thursday at Enterprise Center.
It was another bad start for the Blues, similar to Sunday in Vancouver when they were outshot 21-10. This time it was 17-7 in favor of the Flames after one period. But instead of it being a 1-1 game — as it was against the Canucks — the Blues were down 3-1 after one.
Once again, there were bad passes and bad puck management by the Blues in their own end. There was a steady parade of Blues to the penalty box. Only this time, the home team kept putting the puck into the net.
Before all that, the Blues took a 1-0 lead with the fourth line striking for a rare goal. Playing together for the fourth game in a row, Klim Kostin, Tyler Bozak and Oskar Sundqvist could be developing some chemistry. Just 5:10 into the game, Kostin retrieved a loose puck along the sideboards and passed to Sundqvist in front of the net.
Sundqvist spun around quickly and passed to Bozak on the other side of the crease. Bozak had a wide-open net to plant his third goal of the season, and second in his last three games.
Then the Flames got busy. Just 51 seconds after the Bozak goal, Calgary’s Nikita Zadorov skated into the left circle and flicked a wrist shot past Binnington, glove side. That looked like one Binnington would like to have had back.
The Flames kept progressively adding to their shot total, and then Christopher Tanev came streaking down the slot, and blasted a pass from Johnny Gaudreau past Binnington to make it 2-0 at the 12:46 mark.
It became a 3-1 Calgary lead with 4:14 left on a power-play goal by Elias Lindholm after the Blues were called for too many men on the ice. It was only the second time this season the Blues were called for too many men, but it seemed like they flirted with that penalty on many of their first-period line changes.
Not that any of the particulars mattered. The Blues came out listless in the second period, normally a period they have dominated this season. Instead they got dominated by the Flames, who piled on four more goals to take a 7-1 lead after two. They outshot the Blues 18-2 in the second period. That’s right, 18-2.
After Husso faced 39 shots Sunday against Vancouver and pitched a shutout Friday in Seattle, the last thing coach Craig Berube wanted to do was have Husso come in to relieve Binnington in this one. But that’s what happened to start the third period. To say that Binnington’s body language was bad and that he didn’t exude much confidence would be an understatement. He left shell-shocked after allowing seven goals on 35 shots. The Blues, meanwhile, had nine shots on goal in two periods.
The challenge now for the Blues’ coaching staff, particularly goalie coach Dave Alexander is to get Binnington back on his game as soon as possible.
Nothing seemed to work for St. Louis on Monday. And the return of Pavel Buchnevich from Seattle provided no spark. Buchnevich missed the Vancouver game as he met the 10-day quarantine requirement in Canada to cross the border. In a sign of the times, Buchnevich was stopped on a breakaway by Calgary goalie Jacob Markstrom midway through the final period.
Even the Blues’ vaunted penalty-killing unit, which entered the night ranked fourth in the league at 85.3%, had a rough night. The Blues gave up a pair of power play goals to Calgary, only the fourth time all season that has happened.
The only thing that dampened the evening for the Calgary faithful was that only half capacity is allowed in the Saddledome, which seats 19,289, because of COVID-19 protocols. No food and beverage is served in the arena at this time either, again as part of COVID-19 regulations. Then again, they did get to savor a seven-goal outing. Seven different Flames scored Monday, but not St. Louisan Matthew Tkachuk. Then again, Tkachuk had a whopping five assists, just one shy of the team record.
As for the Blues, they played a little better in the final 20 minutes. Thanks in part to a power play, they managed 12 shots on goal in the third period. Meanwhile, Calgary had a more modest 13 shots. But no goals with Husso in the net.
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