After falling at Washington 5-2 Thursday, the St. Louis Blues return home Saturday for a rematch with the Capitals.
"I don't know if it's good or bad," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "For us, we have to be better in all situations. Doesn't really matter who we play two days from now."
The Blues are 0-2-1 in the last three games heading into Saturday, while the Capitals have won three of their last four games.
"We're playing much more consistent, shift to shift, period to period and now game to game," Washington coach Spencer Carbery said.
Bannister believed his team helped the Capitals maintain control of Thursday's game by mismanaging the puck.
"I think it wasn't really what they were doing," Bannister said. "I don't think we were very predictable in getting pucks underneath, things we talked about as a group, putting pucks to areas we can get to and sustaining O-zone pressure. That's something that collectively as a group, they have to decide they want to do if we want to have success moving forward."
St. Louis' three-game winless streak is the longest since Bannister replaced Craig Berube as coach. The Blues scored just seven goals in that span, prompting Bannister to shuffle his forward line combinations and defensive pairings.
With winger Kasperi Kapanen landing on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, the Blues recalled forward Adam Gaudette from AHL affiliate Springfield and placed him on the third line. Forward Nikita Alexandrov returned from a conditioning stint in the AHL and rejoined the fourth line.
But the changes did not have the desired effect. The Blues mustered just 11 shots at even strength.
"Sometimes, I think we're trying to do too much with the puck and we haven't been scoring a lot of goals," said Blues defenseman Justin Faulk, who assisted one of his team's two goals. "Some guys are probably feeling it a little more and forcing it. It's a tough give and take. When you're not scoring, you try a little harder and you grip your stick. It's a cliche, everyone says it, but you're thinking about it a lot more and playing your game a little bit differently, a little bit slower."
The Capitals got Alex Ovechkin back Thursday after he missed three games with a lower-body injury. He earned an assist in his return, but former Blues forward T.J. Oshie starred for Washington with his sixth career hat trick.
Defenseman Joel Edmundson, another former Blue, is day-to-day for the Capitals with an upper-body injury. Trevor van Riemsdyk replaced him on Thursday. Forward Beck Malenstyn missed the game for personal reasons.
Oshie scored twice on the power play, which ranked 30th in the NHL coming into the game. Washington scored another goal just as a man advantage expired.
"The power play was a difference-maker tonight," Carbery said. "The power play arguably scores three tonight because they get that early one at the beginning of the third, just after it expired. Huge goals, huge moments. I just loved the process.
"And then the penalty kill, when you go back in that game, there were some teetering moments where, they score a power-play goal and now all of a sudden the game's flipped. There were probably three penalty kills that I remember (thinking) ‘It's a huge kill.'"
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