Phoenix 2, St. Louis 0
Win One, Lose One

St. Louis dropped back to .500 last night thanks to a 2-0 defeat by the hands of the Coyotes. The Blues home record dropped to 2-4-0, and with one “home” win coming in Sweden, the team is 1-4-0 at Scottrade. Compared to their 3-1-1 record on the road, the Blues need to take a page out of their road playbook and start using it at home.

This season has started off in quite the frustrating fashion. Expectations have been high, but each time the Blues pull out a win, they lose their next contest. The team simply can not get past the .500 mark, and their 5-5-1 record screams inconsistency. The Central is jam packed in the early going with Chicago leading the way with 15 points. Next is Columbus (12 points) and St. Louis, Detroit and Nashville all tied with 11. Looking to the Western Conference standings, 11 points is good for 11th place.

Last night the Blues were victims of stellar goaltending by Ilya Bryzgalov. The Note blasted 32 shots, but none of them found the back of the net as Brygalov picked up his NHL best third shutout of the year.

The Blues need to figure out their power-play and soon. Thursday saw the Blues go 0-for-3 with the man advantage pushing the streak zip for their last 20. With the man advantage, something just seems … off. The passing isn’t quite there, and no one has been able to finish like they did in Sweden where the team saw great success on the power-play.

The team has not won back-to-back games since their two victories in Sweden which is a trend that needs to right itself soon if the team wants to avoid having to play catchup later in the year.

The Blues are generating chances, they just aren’t finishing them. The victory and five goal performance in Carolina came off just 17 shots, but last night’s shutout loss had plenty of chances from the Blues 32 shots.

Brad Boyes … what to say about Brad Boyes. He tallied 5 shots last night, which is an improvement over his invisible play of late. However, the right winger still has just two goals on the year and six total points after a 2008-09 where he notched 72 points. At least he is firing the puck more.

Oh captain my captain. Welcome back Eric Brewer. Brew put in 17:51 minutes of ice-time and finished with a (-2). He should only improve as he churns through the rust.

The current win one, lose one pattern we are seeing is not only worrisome but extremely annoying to watch. Which team is the real one? The one that lights the lamp five times on the road against Carolina, or the one that gets bricked at home by Phoenix?

Saturday (Happy Halloween) is as good a time as any for the Blues to get a win at Scottrade against the struggling Florida Panthers. It is a perfect opportunity for the Blues to give their fans that fill the Scottrade something to cheer about, and a perfect time for them to show us just what we should expect this season by starting a winning streak beginning Halloween night.