Blues are out of sync, out of sorts in loss

The Blues headed into a busy December with a revamped lineup and a renewed sense of purpose, but the results weren’t there Friday in a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings before 18,322 at Scottrade Center.
The last time they played the Kings, a 4-2 win here Oct. 30, the Blues were the NHL’s only unbeaten team at home (5-0). Since then, they’re 4-5 at Scottrade, losing three of their last four.
“It doesn’t feel right,” coach Mike Yeo said. “It doesn’t feel like we’re playing like a five-man unit. It doesn’t feel like we’re dangerous. ... Just too easy to score on right now. Giving up the odd-man rushes and the chances against that we are, that’s not a recipe for winning hockey games.”
In winning their fourth game in a row, the Kings (16-8-3) scored two early goals and never seemed seriously in trouble, even though the Blues outshot them 40-28.
“They came out hot and the rest of the game we didn’t really respond the way we wanted to,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “We really didn’t play a team game tonight and we just weren’t connecting.”
At 17-8-1, the Blues no longer are the Western Conference leaders. In fact, with Winnipeg’s 7-4 victory Friday over the Vegas Golden Knights, St. Louis finds itself in second place in the Central Division with 35 points. The top spot now belongs to the Jets, who have 36 points at 16-6-4.
Once again, the Blues seemed tentative at times, a step slow, and out of sync. Perhaps all the lineup changes had something to do with that. Oskar Sundqvist and Carl Gunnarsson returned to action after being healthy scratches recently.
Dmitrij Jaskin was moved up to the second line, with Vladimir Sobotka going to the third line. After being paired with either Alex Pietrangelo or Colton Parayko in his first four games back from a fractured ankle, Jay Bouwmeester was paired with rookie Vince Dunn on Friday.
“Obviously we’d like to find some consistency and we believe in that,” Yeo said, speaking specifically about the changed defensive pairs. “I think we’ve shown that this year. But when you’ve got the feel and you’re giving up things the way we have been, I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to change. We’ve got to find something and it wasn’t happening just by leaving things alone tonight.”
For the third time in four games, the Jaden Schwartz-Brayden Schenn-Vladimir Tarasenko line went without a point. That trio combined for two goals and three assists when these teams met on Oct. 30. After an eight-game scoring streak (seven goals, 12 assists) that helped him earn the NHL’s No. 3 star honor for the month of November, Schenn has gone point-less in four games.
Another strong suit in the team’s impressive start, goals by defensemen, also has disappeared lately. Goals by Parayko and Edmundson against Vancouver on Nov. 18 gave the Blues 21 goals in 21 games by their D-corps. A defenseman has not scored a goal since – a drought of five games.
So yes, the Blues are out of sync in just about every way imaginable.