ST. LOUIS _ There figured to be plenty of distractions for the Blues in the days leading up to Monday's Winter Classic game outdoors at Busch Stadium.
Family and friends descending to town. The carnival atmosphere of an outdoor game. A higher than normal level of hubbub. A meeting with the Nashville Predators.
The Blues dismissed one of those potential distractions in the worst possible way, allowing three goals in the second period to the Predators and losing 4-0 in their farewell for a while to Scottrade Center. The Blues will now take their act down the road to Busch Stadium, giving up the relatively cozy environment of Scottrade Center for the wide open spaces of Busch Stadium and the NHL Winter Classic on Monday.
A change of scenery might be nice, as well as a change of opponent. In the previous meeting between the teams on Dec. 13, the Blues took a 3-0 lead and then gave up six straight goals in a 6-3 loss. This time the wave kept right on going, with Nashville scoring four straight to make it a 10-0 run.
The two games on this homestand preceding the Winter Classic figured to be two of the tougher ones this season, regardless of opponent. The Blues needed to keep their eyes on the two points available in each game, and got the first ones on Wednesday in a 6-3 win over Philadelphia, but couldn't do it on Friday.
It was just the second time this season the Blues were shutout, the other being a 5-0 loss to the New York Rangers. They had some good chances in the third period, but Nahsville goalie Juuse Saros made some good saves.
The Blues are remaining consistent in their inconsistency. They closed the month of December without winning consecutive games at any point in the month. The Blues haven't won consecutive games since a three-game win streak right after Thanksgiving that ended on Dec. 1. After that, every December win was followed by a loss. The Blues closed out 2016 with a record of 45-24-10 in regular-season games, a respectable 100 points in 79 games.
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock was looking for a good performance to give his team some good vibes going into Monday's game, especially considering the emotions he expects to see in the days to come. "We need this game," Hitchcock said Friday morning. "We can really help ourselves tonight by playing well and get a good feeling into the next three days. That's the focus."
The feelings will not be good. The Blues had two power plays in the first period but couldn't score on either. Vladimir Tarasenko hit a post on the second but other than that, the chances were limited.
Nashville scored first, right after Jori Lehtera missed a golden opportunity for the Blues, fouling off a pass from Jay Bouwmeester. Yannick Weber wristed a shot passed a screened Jake Allen 4:52 into the second period.
The Blues then took two penalties in quick succession, first a boarding call on Dmitrij Jaskin, then a hooking call on Kyle Brodziak 31 seconds later. The Blues killed off the 89 seconds of being down two men, thanks to Nashville putting one shot off a post and another off the bar, but with 11 seconds to go in Brodziak's penalty, Mike Ribeiro took a shot that rebounded to Filip Forsberg who easily put it in to make it 2-0.
The Blues had a third power play they couldn't score on midway through the period, and they couldn't even get a shot off in that one, nor even get set up in Nashville's end. Late in the period, the Blues' Joel Edmundson and Nashville's Calle Jarnkrok got tangled up behind the Blues goal and Austin Watson came to Jarnkrok's defense, which led to coincidental roughing penalties. Just as the four-on-four hockey ended, Nashville made it 3-0. The puck got stuck in Jay Bouwmeester's skates and Viktor Arvidsson's extracted it. Coming across the goal, he let the puck run ahead of ahead of him, and reached out around Allen to put the puck in an open net.
The Blues had just four shots on goal in the period and when the third period began, they had a new goalie as well, with Carter Hutton coming on. It was the third straight game Hutton has played, though one of them he played just over a minute when Allen came out as a precaution after getting checked by the trainer. It's the second straight game against Nashville that Allen hasn't finished. He was pulled from the Dec. 13 game after giving up five goals.
Nashville made it 4-0 on a power-play goal by Colin Wilson with three seconds left in a penalty to David Perron.
