MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — It may be only preseason, but Drew Bannister is in regular-season mode.
Despite lineups being mixed with junior, minor league and veteran players through three preseason games, the St. Louis Blues coach hasn’t been pleased with his team’s play thus far.
The culmination came with a 3-0 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
“It wasn’t a good game at all, that’s my general thoughts,” Bannister said. “We’re 0-3 in preseason and it’s time now to start preparing ourselves, earning our spots, earning our jobs, earning our ice time to get ourselves ready. I feel like guys were kind of dipping their toes in. A lot of guys have only played one game, there’s been a few guys that have played two games, but we seem to be easing into things and come Saturday, we can’t be easing into games anymore.”
Combined with a 2-1 loss against the Dallas Stars and 5-3 loss against the Utah Hockey Club, the Blues have been outscored 10-4 in three preseason games, which includes an own goal Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa.
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The Blues play their preseason home opener Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks and moving forward, should start to ice more of a NHL lineup that should help matters along.
“I think so. But both teams (Wednesday) were primarily splits, where early on the first two games, we had a lot of junior kids in, a few NHL guys,” Bannister said. “Yesterday it seemed to be a split between American League and NHL players.
“There were some good things, but I still felt in the three games we got out-competed when you look at the overall picture of all three games. It’s a little bit surprising to me because I’ve been happy with our practices and our compete level in practice. At least for those three games, it hasn’t filtered over into our games.”
One aspect the Blues have been harping on is bringing guys into the mix that will battle at the net front, play between the dots. That was not evident, for the most part, Wednesday.
“Yes and no. It’s certainly not a full-time occupation right now, which it needs to be more for our group,” Bannister said. “But it is there at times. It’s (just) not there enough.”
One area that the Blues are not concerned with, nor should they be, is the goaltending.
Jordan Binnington, who’s played one period; Joel Hofer, who’s played the equivalent of a game; and Colten Ellis and Vadim Zherenko each has filled in well.
“I think all the goalies that have been in there, with ‘Binner’ and ‘Hofe,’ they’ve played extremely well,” Bannister said. “Even Ellis and Zherenko, when I look back at the three games, there’s probably one goal that we’d like to have back, but overall, they’ve played well.”
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