ST. LOUIS _ They remain not only the best in the West, but also the best against the West.
But as the Blues crossed the quarter point of the NHL season, they have reached a bump in the road. Their 4-1 loss Saturday at home to Anaheim dropped their Western Division-leading record to 12-4-5, for 29 points.
Now winless in their last three games, it marked the Blues' first regulation loss to a Western team (8-1-2) this season; they are the last team in the NHL to lose in regulation to a Western foe. In the process, their streak of earning at least one point ended at nine games (7-0-2).
"There's no panic," said forward David Perron, who played in his 800th NHL game Saturday and No. 500 as a member of the Blues. "It's not even close to being panic. It's just a little bit of a wake-up call that we have to refocus here in the next few days and just get our game back. Just kind of go back to what makes us successful."
In mid-November with Thanksgiving closing in, four regulation losses isn't too shabby. The Blues have remained remarkably consistent, playing only two poor games all season _ both losses to Montreal. But the defeat to Anaheim obviously wasn't what they were looking for, either.
"I don't think we've had the energy the last couple games that I think we've needed to play," captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "We could've played a little bit smarter tonight. It's always tough on the second back-to-back. We kind of gave them everything they got."
The Blues have been on the road for most of the month. And after a four-game, 10-day trip to Minnesota and through western Canada, the Blues played Arizona here Tuesday then went back on the road Friday to Columbus.
They lost to the Coyotes and Blue Jackets in extra time, and Saturday trailed from start to finish against the Ducks.
"We had quite a few good chances," coach Craig Berube said. "I thought that we did a better job tonight of getting to the net, being at the net a little bit more. There were some pucks there _ their goalie played well."
Ducks goalie John Gibson indeed was superb, stopping 37 of 38 shots _ the 38 shots were a season-high for the Blues.
"We just have to do something to find a way to find the back of the net," Pietrangelo said. "I just think we can find a way to get a couple dirty ones to kind of get the train moving."
The need to score more goals was a recurring theme in Berube's postgame remarks. Nearly every answer circled back to that.
"We gotta score goals," Berube said. "It's clear that we didn't score enough goals, with a lot of shots."
On a night when prospect Klim Kostin made his NHL debut _ and played pretty well _ and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo returned to the lineup after eight consecutive games as a healthy scratch, the Blues got just one.
A new-look Anaheim team, which has won its last four games at Enterprise Center, improved to 10-9-2. Derek Grant did most of the damage with his first career hat trick, the third goal coming into an empty net with 99 seconds remaining. Grant had only 18 career goals and just two goals this season before Saturday.
It was one of the easiest hat tricks you'll see because Grant's first and second goals, which gave Anaheim leads of 2-0 and then 3-1, were gift-wrapped.
On the first Grant goal, Jordan Binnington got caught behind the net housekeeping. Binnington sent a pass to Pietrangelo in the corner, but Pietrangelo's pass _ intended for Ivan Barbashev _ bounced off the skate of Anaheim's Nicolas Delauriers and right to the front of the net.
Before Binnington could get back from behind the net, in swooped Grant for a "gimme" goal into an open net.
"I think the whole play could be executed better, that's the bottom line," Berube said. "It's the right play. 'Petro' tries (to send) the puck to the middle to Barbashev, but it hits a skate _ and it wasn't executed."
After Vince Dunn's third goal of the season narrowed the Anaheim lead to 2-1 early in the third period, Grant struck again four minutes later _ on a Blues power play, no less.
You've all seen those drop passes on the power play. Well, Justin Faulk's attempted drop the puck for Dunn in the St. Louis zone was intercepted by Grant, who swooped in (again) and beat Binnington with a backhander that went between the goaltender's legs.
"We use (the drop pass) a lot," Berube said. "A lot of teams use it in the league. It works pretty well. It was just a mistake."
So it was a night of just two glaring mistakes, but in a league of full of one-goal games _ the Blues have played 13 already this season _ it was two mistakes too many.
"We didn't do ourselves any favors, whether it's me passing off a skate," Pietrangelo said. "'Faulker' makes that play nine out of 10 times, too. Sometimes they just don't go your way. These are the ones that usually we find a way to win. It's just catching up to us right now."
But they couldn't find a way on Saturday. Once Anaheim took that 3-1 lead, the Ducks were more than content to play keep-away, sending the puck out of their zone, two-thirds of the way down the ice and forcing the Blues to regroup.
The Blues never could mount anything resembling a sustained push in the third period.
"Once they got the lead, it was tough," Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "All they did was shoot the puck out of the zone and chase it down and try to kill the momentum. It takes a big play to break that, to kind of tighten them up. We just didn't have that tonight."
