ST. LOUIS _ Ah the memories.
There was Brian Elliott, who holds the Blues' record for shutouts, looking like he was heading for another. Troy Brouwer with a sharp pass to set up a goal by Dennis Wideman. A Tkachuk back on the ice.
All that, combined with a desultory effort from the home team, turned that into a night to forget for the Blues, who lacked more than a little spark in a 4-1 loss to Calgary at the not-yet-renamed Scottrade Center.
Elliott had to stop just 22 shots as he won his second game in as many nights for the Flames, who acquired him in the offseason. Carter Hutton started for the Blues, but he was helpless on all three goals and the Blues looked helpless on two of them, making a hash of their heretofore stellar penalty kill on the first and taking a hands-off approach to Calgary's Sam Bennett on the third. In between was a brilliant pass from Kris Versteeg to Deryk Engelland for another. Calgary sealed it with an empty-net goal by Johnny Gaudreau.
It was the first loss of the season for the Blues at home, and extended a streak of things not looking quite right that started on the road, where they went 1-1-1 on a three-game western Canada swing that included a 6-4 win over these same Flames on Saturday.
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock was concerned about his team's energy level coming into the game after an early morning arrival home from the road on Sunday morning, and the Blues didn't have much spark early. Less than four minutes into the game, Patrik Berglund was called for interference when he hit Calgary's Micheal Ferland behind the play.
Matthew Tkachuk, the son of former Blue Keith and a product of St. Louis youth hockey, made his Scottrade Center debut and didn't figure in the scoring, but did get a two-minute slashing call for whacking Dmitrij Jaskin in the back of the legs after a play. Jaskin responded with a shove, and the two both went to the penalty box. In a suite at Scottrade, Keith smiled.
Coming into the game, the Blues penalty kill was among the best in the league _ 95 percent _ while Calgary's power play at the other extreme, converting on just 10 percent of its chances. It took just eight seconds to buck the odds. In a faceoff to the left of goalie Carter Hutton, the puck went into the corner, and was pursued by defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester. Alexander Steen, who was the forward on Hutton's right. He went to the boards apparently expecting the puck to come out deep, and all of a sudden, all four Blues were along the sideboards.
Calgary defenseman Wideman, who broke in with the Blues 2005-06, was not. The was in the slot, between the hashmarks, and when Brouwer, who will forever be remembered for scoring the game-winning goal for the Blues in Game 7 against the Blackhawks last season, got him the puck, Wideman easily scored to make it 1-0.
Midway through the period, in a two-on-one, Versteeg perfectly threaded a pass through the Blues defense to Engelland, who took the puck from his forehand to his backhand to beat Hutton and make it 2-0.
The Blues' best scoring chances, meanwhile, were, well, hard to find. Nail Yakupov and Jaden Schwartz had chances that they couldn't put on net and the Blues were getting some of their best chances from the fourth line which, ultimately, isn't a good thing.
Calgary made it 3-0 in the third after the Blues had killed off a power play. Robby Fabbri came out of the box and jumped into the play in the Blues' end, but he was part of a trio of Blues _ Alexander Steen and Kyle Brodziak were the others _ who gave Calgary's Sam Bennett more time and space then a forward should have in the opponent's end. With a mass of bodies in front of Hutton, he never saw the shot.
The Blues avoided the shutout with a goal by Kevin Shattenkirk in a five-on-three after the Flames were called for board and then delay of game just 17 seconds apart. Last season, the Blues failed to score with a two-man advantage all year. Seven games into this season, they have two after Shattenkirk's one-time from the right faceoff circle.
The Blues still had 1:25 of power play to go but couldn't score, though it did seem to amp up their energy. They got another power play midway through the period when Brouwer was called for roughing Shattenkirk and with five minutes to go in the third they had as many shots in the period as they had in the first two periods combined.
