Blues look to rebound against red-hot Red Wings
ST. LOUIS - Coach Ken Hitchcock criticized the St. Louis Blues' effort and focus in a 4-1 loss to Calgary on Tuesday night.
If they don't improve both of those areas in a hurry, the results in Thursday night's home game against the Detroit Red Wings might not be much better.
The Red Wings are coming into the game as one of the hottest teams in the NHL, having won five consecutive contests after losing their first two to start the season.
Detroit's most recent win came on Tuesday night at home, a 4-2 victory over Carolina that included the first two goals of the season from center Dylan Larkin.
"We have to keep going and we can't take the foot of the gas," Larkin told the Detroit News. "We have a big test on the road in St. Louis, a good team, especially at home. We have to do the right things that have made us successful in the last five games."
Hitchcock also will be looking for his team to do the right things, the parts of the game they didn't do well in the loss to the Flames.
"We didn't manage it (the puck) very well," Hitchcock said. "We played sideways when we should have played with speed and gone north, and we played light on the boards when we could have really won some puck battles and played with a higher level of determination."
St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo, said it will be up to the players to correct those mistakes if they want to a different outcome against the Red Wings.
"The games when you don't seem to have it mentally, you have to find a way to win," he said.
The Blues could get Jori Lehtera back in the lineup for Thursday's game, but instead of playing center, Hitchcock said there was a chance he could move to left wing and play on a line with Jaden Schwartz at center and Vladimir Tarasenko on right wing.
Lehtera has missed the last four games while being treated for an apparent concussion.
Left winger Justin Abdelkader could return for the Red Wings after missing the last two games because of a lower-body injury. Returning to St. Louis as a new member of the Red Wings will be center Steve Ott, who spent the last three years with the Blues before signing as a free agent in Detroit.
One of the keys to the Red Wings' recent success has been the ability to close out games, something they had trouble doing last season.
"That's the biggest difference," coach Jeff Blashill told NHL.com. "We've done that so far this season. We've done a good job of being able to score that extra goal if we've needed it. As I've talked about, we were actually good defensively in the third period last year but we still gave up lots of leads because you're constantly playing with just a one-goal lead so it's a big difference."
