ST. LOUIS _ Having a well-established team identity is helpful in the NHL. It makes relocating your game so much easier.
The Blues proved that point after suffering an ugly 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon.
When the Blues sat down to discuss their downturn among themselves, there was no need for navel-gazing and deep reflection. There was no reason to ask: "Who are we?" or "What are we doing here?"
They endured that self-exploration last season, through a head coaching change and a difficult transition period. They completed the journey with a late-season push and an epic playoff run.
These days the Blues just have to take a good hard look in the mirror to find themselves. They did so after their winless streak reached four games _ then they responded with their impressive 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
"We've been piecing things together but this is the first time, so far this year, that we played the way we wanted to the entire game," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said.
"That was a really big game for us, especially after the last couple of games," winger Vladimir Tarasenko said. "We needed to bounce back, especially against a division opponent. A really good test. That was the game plan, try to stay tight, don't let them get some speed because they have really high-skilled players there."
The free-wheeling Avalanche rolled into town with a 7-0-1 record. They won three of their previous four games on their road trip _ and they scored 17 goals in those victories.
The Blues stayed tenacious on their forecheck, limiting Avalanche breakouts and preventing them from building speed through the neutral zone. That job got somewhat easier when Colorado lost explosive winger Mikko Rantanen to a left leg injury during the game.
"They were the hungrier team," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar surmised afterward. "When they're on the puck first and with their numbers all the time, it just makes it difficult if you don't have the legs.
"They check hard and they're heavy on the puck. Our counter to that is our speed and we didn't have it tonight."
At the back end, the Blues blocked 14 shots and allowed just 17 to get through to goaltender Jordan Binnington. Just 10 of those shots came at even strength and the only Avalanche goal came on a 5-on-3 advantage.
The Blues finished their checks, notably when straight-line checker MacKenzie MacEachern paved Avalanche forward Andre Burakovsky to trigger a giant scrum.
"We were aggressive," Pietrangelo said. "From our own zone all the way to their end, neutral zone and everything, (we were) just being more aggressive. That's pretty much how we played the whole game. We were confident in our routes, we were confident in the plays we made and they had a tough time with it."
The Blues won 63% of their faceoffs, maintained strong puck possession and earned lots of offensive zone time. "We played without the puck the whole night," Bednar said. "We never really had the puck."
The Blues' effort was far from perfect. There was plenty of nit to pick. Once again the Blues took too many penalties, such as the interference call on Alexander Steen off an offensive zone faceoff.
They weren't always in sync on their breakouts, as Justin Faulk reminded us by firing a pass into the skates of Jaden Schwartz, leading to a quick Avalanche counterattack and a tripping penalty on Schwartz.
Sometimes they forgot to play north-south, like when Sammy Blais blindly threw a clearing attempt into the middle of the ice or when MacEachern ignored a shooting lane to make a doomed lateral pass in the middle of the offensive zone.
Sometimes their power play broke down, most notably in the third period when the wheels came off completely during one ugly sequence.
"The power play in the third period, I would expect to see more killer instinct, to be honest with you," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "You get a chance like that, you have a team down 3-1, you could make it 4-1. It's just about being assertive and moving the puck quick and attacking, just being on your toes a little more I thought."
When the Blues have Carl Gunnarsson healthy and Jay Bouwmeester playing well, they can pair three right-shooting defensemen with three lefties and balance up their minutes on the blue line.
But when Gunnarsson is injured and a struggling Bouwmeester is relegated to the third pairing with Robert Bortuzzo at even-strength, the Blues are not as airtight in the zone.
Up front, Berube is still seeking better chemistry and more consistency. The top forward line with Brayden Schenn flanked by Tarasenko and Schwartz has been terrific this season, but the other three lines have remained fluid and inconsistent.
So, as Berube frequently points out, there's work to do. The Blues have survived an uneven season start with a 4-2-3 record, but they are still working to gain traction.
"It's only one game, you know. We won one game," Tarasenko said. "It's really important how we react and hopefully we'll move on and win more games after."
The Blues know who they are, so they know how it's done.
