When St. Louis Blues interim coach Drew Bannister spoke after Saturday's overtime loss against the Boston Bruins, he spoke of a team that's desperate for points and needing every one they can get.
He also spoke of desperation and being in playoff mode now as they begin the second half of their season.
The players didn't get that message on Monday and were thoroughly outplayed and outworked by the Philadelphia Flyers in a 4-2 defeat to close out a four-game homestand at Enterprise Center on Monday.
Let's just say that the only reason the Blues (21-19-2) were in the game in the third period was goalie Joel Hofer was keeping them in it because aside from a few of the the skaters in front of him, the rest of the team sure wasn't.
Let's take a look at the three keys to a poorly-played game aside from the one in net by the Blues:
1. Poor effort -- Let's call it what it was. It was a poorly-played game against a team playing its third game in four nights on the road.
The Flyers (24-14-6) were faster, they were more aggressive, they were hungrier, they won more loose pucks, they were stronger along the walls. They won all the small battles that goes into possessing pucks and were doing so from start to finish.
"I thought so, I thought we got outworked in the first 40 minutes, especially whether it's along the walls or net front or in the face-off circle, we got outworked in those areas," Bannister said when asked if effort was an issue.
"I think we got what we deserved. For 40 minutes, we didn't have enough effort in our game in hard areas. We continue to mis-manage the puck that is making it difficult on our team. We have to defend, which makes it easy for them. More offensive zone time, more shots at the net."
2. No puck management/passing was off -- When pucks were on sticks, the Blues couldn't connect passes in stride, skaters were running into each other, and when pucks needed to be managed properly, the Blues were either giving it away or losing it in areas where the Flyers could transition with numbers.
"I think off the rush, we tried to find late guys and stuff like that," captain Brayden Schenn said. "They back-check hard, nothing was there and we didn't play below the top of the circles enough and work them down there. That forced us to play a lot of time in the neutral zone or whether it was in our end and not enough in their end. Our goalie gave us a chance tonight, but we know we've got to be better than that.
"I don't think we were at our best tonight."
3. Offensive zone turnovers -- It shouldn't just fall on one player, but the Blues made poor decisions in the offensive zone that led to the first two goals against, and both were by defenseman Torey Krug.
On each occasion, the veteran gave pucks away at the blue line that fueled Philadelphia's transition. One goal came off a shot and rebound, the second came with 6.2 seconds left in the second period after Oskar Sundqvist's power-play goal that tied the game late in the second.
Krug's giveaway led to Ryan Poehling's goal than made it 2-1 and on each play, simple plays would have been sufficient enough.
"First two goals, we turn the puck over in the offensive zone, it goes down and it's in the back of our net. Those plays can't happen. We've got to make better decisions there.
"A goal like that (second one) can't happen. We're under a minute at that point. We don't have to look to make plays in high ice at that point. We put our 'D' in a difficult position and our 'D' made a play that shouldn't have been made, should have just went on the wall behind the net and we're safe. But at that point of the game, we tie it up and we have a little bit of momentum, we've just got to play safe and get through the period, regroup and get ourselves ready for the third."
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