Takeaways from Blues’ loss to Coyotes

The St. Louis Blues returned to the Enterprise Center to continue a brief, three-game homestand versus the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night. The Blues were almost fully-staffed and ready to go as defenseman Torey Krug, center Oskar Sundqvist, and backup goaltender Ville Husso returned. Also, Scott Perunovich made his NHL debut on Tuesday. Perunovich, a rookie defenseman, was recently recalled by the Springfield Thunderbirds.

Here are three takeaways from the Blues’ loss versus the Coyotes.

Blues don’t seem to learn from their mistakes.
The Blues made several mistakes during Tuesday’s game.

Let’s start with the Blues’ starting lineup of Jordan Kyrou, Ryan O’Reilly, Pavel Buchnevich, Marco Scandella, Colton Parayko, and Jordan Binnington. It seems as if Blues head coach Craig Berube stays put with his first defensive pair of Scandella and Parayko. Don’t get me wrong, Scandella and Parayko have their good days, but they’re not worthy of the first defensive pair.

Krug and Faulk belong on the first defensive pair as they’re good at the five-on-five. Plus Krug has emerged as a beast on the ice, just like Faulk did last season.

Anywho, St. Louis played some sloppy, uninspired hockey. Their defense, puck management, and penalty kill were pretty bad. They need to continue addressing their mistakes and making the necessary changes. But that’s their job, not mine.

Krug came out to play.
Torey Krug is a good, if not great, defenseman. I’ve watched him since his Boston Bruins days. He was signed to take the place of Alex Pietrangelo, which was a good call by the Blues.

Krug scored the game-tying goal, his third goal of the season, at 14:58 of the second period. Ryan O’Reilly received the lone assist, his fifth assist of the season, on Krug’s goal. Are there even any Krug haters left?

Do-or-die third period — or lack thereof?
The Blues had to be a desperate team in the third period. The Coyotes were desperate for their first road win of the season as it’d snap their three-game losing skid.

The Blues had to step up their game in the offensive zone. However, they never really gained offensive ground on Arizona. The Coyotes regained the lead, 3-2, at 13:52 of the third period on a Barrett Hayton power-play goal, his second goal of the season.

The Blues started the game with little energy. As a result, they didn’t play a full 60 minutes of hockey. Many Blues fans were upset about this, along with a myriad of other things such as Binnington losing his mojo, St. Louis’ special teams being subpar, and Arizona’s NHL team resembling an AHL team roster-wise.

Hopefully, St. Louis won’t make this a habit. Blues fans deserve better.

The Blues host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night at 7:00 pm Central.