Blues at Red Wings Preview: Motor City Meh-ness

Last night’s 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins was disappointing, not just because the Blues outshot the Bruins handily and failed to convert, but because it came after two fairly impressive wins against the Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings in which the Blues played for the full 60 minutes. Last night? To the surprise of no one, the second period was optional:

“I mean, we can play better,” Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said after the game. “Our second period was not very good, just a little bit sloppy with the puck and stuff. But I thought we had a good first period and I thought we had a good third period.”

You can’t win them all, and the Blues are right back in it this afternoon in Detroit. The Red Wings started the season off with three wins and just one loss, giving Wings faithful a little bit of apparently undo optimism, as they’ve dropped seven in a row. That losing streak has to end sooner or later, and the Blues would probably prefer it to end later. The issue here is that if the Blues come in and play down to their competition, they’re competition’s going to be up to the challenge. It’s easy to forget that the Red Wings have some excellent young players like Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Anthony Mantha.

Sure the old days are gone - the Red Wings and Blues aren’t even in the same conference anymore, let alone division. The teams’ trajectories are different, and the Blues have started to run over the Wings during the regular season. The old animosity between the former rivals has waned, but don’t count out a tough fight tonight. The Blues would like to gain some consistency, and the Red Wings would just like this losing streak to stop.