Colton Parayko was back on the ice for the first time since Feb. 15.
Ville Husso started successive games for the first time, well, ever.
Craig Berube shuffled his lines to the point where Vladimir Tarasenko was dropped to the third line.
Otherwise, it was business as usual Monday for the Blues at Enterprise Center. And make no mistake, business has not been good for them this season. They faded quickly, and convincingly, in an embarrassing 6-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. They haven’t won a game in more than two weeks, and haven’t won at home since mid February.
Things got ugly early. Just seconds after a nice video tribute to former captain Alex Pietrangelo, and a standing ovation by most of the 4,100 in attendance, Vegas’ Tomas Nosek scored on a net-front deflection for the game’s first goal.
It came on the Golden Knights’ third shot on goal of the game, marking the eighth time this season Husso has allowed a goal on the opponents’ first, second or third shot of the game.
It also marked the 26th time in 38 games that the opposing team has scored first against the Blues.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The Blues continue to take the same missteps over and over, suffer the same coverage breakdowns. It doesn’t look like a team that is responding to the coaching from Craig Berube and his staff.
For the first time in a long time, the Blues had almost their entire team available and on the ice with the surprise return of Parayko. (He skated on the team’s fourth D-pairing in the morning skate, but came out for pregame warmups and then was paired with Marco Scandella in the game.)
To no avail. The Blues fell to 16-16-6 on the season, and extended their winless streak to seven games (0-6-1). They are now 4-9-4 at Enterprise for the season, matching hapless Buffalo and nearly hapless New Jersey for fewest home victories in the league.
Since the Blues started getting players back, starting with the return of Vladimir Tarasenko on March 6, the team is 2-9-3. The expectation, and rightfully so, was that they would get better once their regulars returned.
The opposite has happened since Tarasenko, Tyler Bozak, Jaden Schwartz, Robert Thomas, Jacob de la Rose, Ivan Barbashev and now Parayko have all returned to the lineup. Prior to all that, the Blues were 14-7-3.
Meanwhile, Vegas ended a three-game winless dip (0-2-1) in resounding fashion. They have now outscored the Blues 16-3 in the last three meetings between the teams. In the previous two matchups, both 5-1 Vegas wins, the Golden Knights had four-goal third periods to break open close contests.
They didn’t wait as long this time – they had five goals and a 5-1 lead – by the middle of the third period.
Vegas is a relentless team, and a team that doesn’t worry about getting the perfect look or best angle offensively. They put the puck on net, and crash the net, tactics the Blues just haven’t done much lately.
In this case, Nick Holden put the puck on net from just inside the blueline. Nosek was net front, and Vince Dunn didn’t do much to move him. The deflection, Nosek’s sixth goal of the season, made it 1-0 Vegas at the 6:25 mark of the game.
The second goal was more of the same, only without the deflection. From nearly the same spot as Nosek — just inside the blueline — Alec Martinez sent a shot towards Husso. There was traffic in front, screening the Blues’ goalie, and the puck found its way in the net for another Vegas goal at 12:25.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
So a Blues team that hasn’t scored more than two goals over its last six — now seven — contests found itself down 2-0 in the middle of the opening period. Making it tougher to take was the fact that the Blues came out with pep in their step.
They were skating with authority and had several excellent chances in the opening minutes, including shots by Jordan Kyrou, David Perron and Tarasenko that missed the net.
The Blues finally broke through with just 2:59 to go in the opening period. Zach Sanford had just drawn a penalty but skated around behind the Vegas net and made a slick pass to Bozak — left uncovered in front of the net. Bozak sent the pass past Robin Lehner with a one-timer to make it a 2-1 game.
It was only the sixth goal scored this season by a member of the Blues’ fourth line.
Whatever momentum the Bozak goal might have given the Blues quickly disappeared in the second period.
Left uncovered in the faceoff circle, Martinez scored his second goal of the night at the 7:08 mark of the second, and then William Carrier made it 4-1 a mere 32 seconds later. When Jonathan Marchessault scored from an impossible angle on the near post, it was three goals in 1:59 for Vegas, a 5-1 lead for Vegas, and the end of the night for Husso.
After playing arguably his best game of the season Saturday against Colorado, Husso failed to make a statement that he should carve into Jordan Binnington’s playing time. Not that he got much support from the other Blues on the ice.
So Binnington replaced Husso at the 9:07 mark, but couldn’t stem the tide. Four minutes into his stint, Nicolas Hague scored his fifth goal of the season on a familiar sequence. A shot from near the blue line, a Vegas player planted in front of the Blues’ goalie for a screen, and a Vegas goal.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
