More beyond the score: Blues teammates take exception to fans' mocking of goaltender Jake Allen

Winnipeg 4, Blues 0

Despite seeing the Blues play some bad hockey at Scottrade Center over the past two months, fans have continued to show up. The team had lost five of its past nine home games before Friday’s matchup with Winnipeg, yet a sellout crowd of 18,912 showed up.

They were extremely vocal, though, when the game turned on the Blues. The Jets scored three goals in the first period — including a second one that Jake Allen would later call “a bad goal … that was on me” — and the Blues were booed off the ice. And then in the second period, they turned on Allen specifically, giving him a hearty Bronx cheer when he stopped a pass from teammate Alexander Steen to the side of the net and again when Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele slid another puck into the crease.

ICYMI: #stlblues fans sarcastically cheer for Jake Allen multiple times throughout the second period. (@jprutherford) pic.twitter.com/2hNd2fxjVc

— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) February 24, 2018

Following the shutout loss, which was the Blues’ season-high fifth in a row, Allen was the first player to speak with the media and never addressed the fans’ jeering. But moments later, Vladimir Tarasenko brought up the topic on his own, voicing great disappointment in the treatment of the goaltender.

“One thing I can address to every one of you, and the fans too: The goalies are the last guys who we can blame on this,” Tarasenko said. “This is just embarrassing to hear. A lot of guys have never played hockey and they cheer when Jake makes a save. If not for the goalies, we’d be in a worse spot right now. They can blame us, they can blame everyone, but don’t touch the goalies. Me personally, I know how hard (Allen) works, I know how much he’s done for the organization and especially this year and last year. I don’t understand why people blame the goalies. That’s wrong.”

Allen’s record fell to 19-18-2 overall this season, and he’s now 2-12 in his past 14 decisions. The loss dropped his record to 10-9 at Scottrade Center this season, and by giving up four goals on 23 shots Friday, his save percentage at home is .901. But also sticking up for Allen was Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo, who noted the continued lack of offensive support provided to Allen. The fifth shutout of the season was the fourth with Allen in net, and in addition, the team has now scored one goal or fewer in nine of his past 14 starts and 11 of his 39 this season.

“We didn’t score a goal, so you can’t win the game by not scoring a goal,” Pietrangelo said. “I don’t like (the jeering). It’s been bothering me. I’m not going to say anything about the fans, but it’s disappointing to hear that. We’ve got his back.”

St Louis Blues have scored 1 Goal or less in 4 of Huttons 23 starts.

St Louis Blues have scored 1 Goal or less in 10 of Allen's 38 starts.

(Does not include start by Allen tonight).#stlblues https://t.co/D0k2lAzrgj

— STL Blues History (@STLBlueshistory) February 24, 2018

Blues coach Mike Yeo was glad to hear that Allen’s teammates were sticking up for the netminder.

“For sure, it should bother your teammates because you care for him,” he said. “You love him and you feel for him. I don’t think by them saying that, I don’t think there’s any disrespect to our fans. Our players love our fans. They know the support that they have, and they know how passionate they are about us winning and us performing. But of course, I mean when it comes down to it, they love their teammate and they feel sorry for Jake for what’s gone on.

“We haven’t scored goals for him. Obviously when you’re not scoring goals, then if Jake lets in a bad goal right now, we can’t absorb that because we haven’t been scoring goals. So I don’t think that Jake is going to hide from this in any way. I don’t think he’s gonna come up here and say he’s playing the best hockey of his life. But I also don’t think that we as a group can say that we’ve helped him out a whole lot, too.”

The Blues have now lost three straight at Scottrade Center and six of their past 10 at home. In those 10 games, they’ve been outscored 29-11, but Tarasenko wanted to stress again that it’s not the fault of the goalies.

“I want to explain, I don’t blame fans … but trust me, as a guy who understands hockey, (the goalies) do a lot for us,” Tarasenko said. “If they not play their hockey, we’d be out of the playoffs right now. … We need to score goals. There is no excuses. This is on me personally, and on all of us. Now we just need to find a way to put the puck in the net. If you can’t score, you can’t win the games. So I take this blame and promise we will work and make the playoffs and have a good run.”

STILL SHELL-SHOCKED?

The Blues’ five-game losing streak has left them clinging to a playoff spot, which could disappear by Saturday night. They are currently in the second wild card with 72 points, but could get jumped on Saturday by either Los Angeles (71 points), which hosts Edmonton, or Calgary (71), which hosts Colorado.

The Blues still seem shell-shocked from that third period in Nashville on Feb. 13, when they gave up a 3-0 lead in the final 11 minutes of regulation and lost 4-3 in OT. They were competitive in a 2-1 loss to Dallas three nights later, but beginning with that third period in Nashville, the Blues have been outscored 13-3 in the past 10 periods. They’ve given the 13 goals up on just 72 shots (.819 save percentage) and there’s been just one 5-on-5 goal among the three they’ve scored.

“I thought we played actually very well in Dallas, (but) maybe it’s both of (those games) combined to be honest with you,” Yeo said.

The Blues just look like a fragile team right now. They had a good start Friday, outshooting Winnipeg 7-0 in the early going, but when the Jets’ Nic Petan and Blake Wheeler scored 45 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead 10:48 into the game, the Blues looked defeated. They had just 10 shots on goal over the next 33 minutes.

“I don’t want to use the word fragile,” Yeo said. “I think we would all take that personally, but no question we’re not handling adversity as well as we can right now. It’s not a question of character, that’s not the case, it’s a matter of us figuring out how to handle it, how to face it, and what you need to do. If you have three or four players … taking themselves out of their game (or) you have a couple other players that kind of freeze up to the moment, then obviously you’re not playing to your abilities.”

Allen said the Blues are cracking too soon.

“We get behind a couple goals … it’s a hockey game, it’s the way the sport is created, we have to find a way,” he said. “It’s not the talent. We have the talent. We just have to put it all together. We’re not putting it all together now. The pieces of the puzzle are there, we’re just not fitting. We’re beating ourselves right now.”

The Blues had a team meeting and canceled practice earlier this week and came out of that saying they had gotten the message, but that obviously wasn’t the case after watching Friday’s game. They are running out of things in their bag of tricks, and they are also running out of time.

“Well look, we’ve got 20 games here,” Blues forward Alexander Steen said. “Obviously we’ve done a lot of talking and it needs to start showing up on the ice now. Twenty games and we’re in a fight here. We’re in a good division and we’re going to play some good teams, but you know I think we need to find that swagger and confidence in us again and get back to our game. Like I said, there’s a lot of points on the table, but this needs to turn around next game.”

The next game — Sunday in Nashville, where this all started.

SOSHNIKOV ARRIVES

There wasn’t a lot to cheer about in the first period Friday, when the Blues went to their locker room trailing 3-0. But then on the Jumbotron, a video began playing, and it gave fans something to be excited about.

Nikita Soshnikov had finally arrived.

Acquired eight days ago in a trade with Toronto, the Russian forward wrapped up his visa requirements and flew to St. Louis. He was carrying his own bag when greeted by team personnel.

Nikita Soshnikov has arrived. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/dZVQ593VL8

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) February 24, 2018

Soshnikov, who was exchanged for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft, is expected to practice with the Blues Saturday and then go from there.

“I think it’s actually gonna be a good little injection into our group,” Yeo said. “He brings speed, he brings competitiveness and I think that he’s gonna bring some life. Sometimes just a little change like that can help spark things. I’m hoping that he has a good practice (Saturday) and see how he is for Sunday.”

Asked if there was a legitimate chance Soshnikov could play against the Predators, Yeo replied: “What do we have to lose by throwing him in there? Let’s get him in with the group and let’s get him rolling, and obviously the quicker we do that the quicker he’ll get up to speed with our game and with our group.

SANFORD INJURED

The return of Blues forward Zach Sanford has been put on hold, following an upper-body injury suffered during his conditioning stint with the San Antonio Rampage. The injury is not related his surgically repaired left shoulder, which he dislocated in training camp.

Sanford, who missed the first five months of the season before being assigned to San Antonio, was hurt in a 4-3 loss to the Rockford IceHogs on Feb. 18. He returned to St. Louis for tests, and afterwards was ruled out of the Rampage’s next four games.

ODDS AND ENDS

A pair of former Blues were involved in a complicated three-team trade Friday that was initially rejected by the NHL over salary-retention issues and then later approved. In the end, Pittsburgh sent Ryan Reaves to Vegas and Ian Cole to Ottawa, although the Senators are reportedly going to flip Cole to another team by Monday’s NHL trade deadline … Jaden Schwartz took a high-sticking penalty Friday, his third straight game with a minor penalty. It was also his sixth minor in 12 games since returning to the lineup from a fractured ankle, after having just four penalties in 30 games before the injury … The Blues were shutout for the fourth time in 33 games at Scottrade Center this season. They were only shutout four times at home from 2014-15 to 2016-17 season, a span of 123 games, according to @stlblueshistory.

(Main photo credit: Joe Puetz/USA TODAY Sports)