NEWARK, N.J. – Perhaps the Blues picked up a postcard or a souvenir. Maybe took a tour to the Statue of Liberty, got a nice dinner or two.
Or maybe they got one of those T-shirts: “I spent a week in New York and all I got was one lousy point.”
Because that’s all they came home with after seven days in the New York metro area. One measly point.
After being unable to hold a 3-2 lead in the third period Wednesday, they lost 5-3 to the New York Rangers.
They looked groggy through most of a 2-1 loss Saturday afternoon to the New York Islanders.
And down 2-0 entering the third period Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, they were in the midst of another sleep-skating exhibition.
The Blues awoke with two goals early in the third to tie Sunday’s game and send it into overtime. But then veteran defenseman Dougie Hamilton lifted a shot past Ville Husso to give New Jersey a 3-2 win just 72 seconds into extra time.
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“Robby Thomas lost his man,” coach Craig Berube said of the game-ending sequence. “It’s not any more simple than that. He’s gotta stay on the right side of him. He can’t let him jump by him like that. He’s on the wrong side of it, and it’s in our net.”
That’s how it ended. The Blues limped back to St. Louis on Sunday evening at 32-16-7, still clinging to second place in the Central Division. Lowly New Jersey (20-31-5), which entered the day in last place in the Metropolitan Division and ranked 28th in league defense, won both games in the season series.
So it was a lost week on the road.
“It’s very disappointing,” captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “There wasn’t much to even feel good about. Obviously we want to get points, we need the points right now with how tight the West is.
“But we did not play the way we needed to play. And that’s something we gotta figure out inside of our room right now. It’s on myself, leadership. We’ve gotta figure out what our identity is now. . .because that was not a good trip.
“That’s not gonna work going down the stretch. At least we know the issue. Now it’s find a way in our group to figure it out.”
And what exactly is the issue?
“I don’t want to say too much,” O’Reilly said. “It’s something we have to work out ourselves and within our room and such.”
But then he provided a general outline.
“When you watch us play, we’re a little too individual right now,” he said. “We’re not helping each other out enough and setting each other up, and just working for each other. We’re just very disconnected. Everyone feels it. Everyone can see it.
“We have to change. It’s very disappointing. We have to adjust and move on. And I’m confident we will.”
No one is more disappointed, or unhappy, than Berube. To the point that after back-to-back games, after spending nine days on the road, he has scheduled a practice for Monday morning at Centene Community Ice Center in St. Louis instead of giving his team the day off.
“We’ll get back at it again tomorrow, and go through some things, and fix it,” Berube said Sunday afternoon before the team left Prudential Center. “It’s been a long couple weeks in a row. Now we get home for a bit and we gotta get points.”
Dating back to Valentine’s Day, the Blues have been on the road for 18 of the last 21 days and eight of their last nine games. So travel fatigue might have been an issue at the end of this latest trip.
“You went home for one game,” Berube said referring to a Feb. 25 home game against Buffalo. “If you come outta here with a win today, we’re 6-2-1 in our last nine. That’s pretty good.”
But iit was difficult to see silver linings after another sluggish afternoon performance. OK, the Blues did win an afternoon game against Chicago on Feb. 27, way back at the start of this trip. But they’ve won only two of eight matinees this season (2-4-2), and looked almost listless for most of the Islanders and Devils contests.
Over the first 6 ½ minutes Sunday, the Blues were outshot 9-1 and committed a penalty (by Niko Mikkola). They fell behind 1-0 midway through the period when defenseman Ty Smith skated down the slot undefended and popped a shot past Ville Husso.
It was more of the same, actually worse, in the second period. There was another Mikkola penalty early in the period, and another New Jersey goal midway through – this time by Dawson Mercer. The Blues had only one shot in the period, and it didn’t come until just 1:53 remained.
The fourth line was on the ice for both regulation goals, with Mercer getting behind Oskar Sundqvist on his score. Mikkola got caught puck-watching on the first goal and was out of position.
“I don’t know specifically what it is,” O’Reilly said, referring to both the slow starts and the afternoon woes. “Playing a team like this that is just so run-and-gun, so rush (oriented). Every time we turn the puck over, they just come in waves.
“And you can just see it, too, they’re jso confident in making plays. They rarely dump it in. They’re confident, they’re pulling up, throwing (passes) across the ice.”
Shouldn’t the Blues, as one of the elite teams in the Western Conference, be the confident team? But it didn’t look that way Sunday, even though the Blues got goals by Torey Krug and Jordan Kyrou early in the third period to tie the game at 2-all.
And it didn’t look that way Saturday against the Islanders, or in the third period Wednesday against the Rangers.
“We didn’t want to play the way we need to play to be successful,” Berube said. “We played (stretches) of that hockey. It needs to be more than that, though. This time of year, you’re not gonna get away with playing one good period, two good periods.”
Or less than that.
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