ST. LOUIS -- Coach Mike Yeo said the Blues got away with it it the previous two games. They didn't on Saturday.
It was another clunker of a first period against the New York Islanders, who did what the New Jersey Devils and Arizona Coyotes failed to do: make the Blues pay.
The Islanders, one night after being called out by coach and former Blue Doug Weight for having a lack of heart and work ethic, responded accordingly to the criticism of their coach. They scored three times and went on to a 5-2 victory over the Blues on Saturday before 18,761 at Scottrade Center.
The Blues (13-4-1), who came in 9-1-1 in the past 11 games, got goals from Brayden Schenn and Scottie Upshall. Jake Allen made 14 saves on 18 shots before being replaced by Carter Hutton, who made 10 saves, but it was a collection of miscues and some poor puck luck that led to the three-goal hole.
"That's three games in a row now," Yeo said of the Blues' inefficiency in the first period. "We got away with it for two, so we've been playing with fire and obviously, didn't tonight.
"It starts to happen when you start to feel pretty good about yourself. You start to remember the reasons why you were having success and our start tonight, you look at our urgency with the puck and our urgency to defend and obviously just giving them easy goals."
The Blues knew what was coming at them Saturday, an Islanders team that was looking for a response following an embarassing 5-0 loss at Dallas on Friday in a game in which the Islanders mustered 14 shots. They had 12 in the first period Saturday.
"We knew ... a hockey player, when you're embarrassed like that, you don't have much time to think about it," Upshall said. "You come out and you have to turn things around. They've got good leaders over there. (John) Tavares led the way for them, especially their goaltending was superb and they made it really tough for us early in the game.
"... We were second to pucks, I didn't think our changes were as good as they needed to be. They were a hungry team, they came out fast, they got the first goal, then they didn't really look back. They poured three on us quick and before we know it, we're chasing the game and that's not the right way you want to play hockey."
"I don't think our team game was tight as it usually is tonight," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "We gave the a lot of room, that's usually not how we play. We've just got to make sure we come together for the next game and move forward.
"It's tough to win when they score five goals as well. We've got to make sure we limit those goals obviously, but we did have chances, but like I mentioned, five goals is a lot of goals to get the bounces on on good goalies."
Tavares, Casey Cizikas and Jordan Eberle scored in the first for New York (9-6-2), which took a 3-0 lead on 12 shots. The Islanders had 14 shots on goal Friday.
Anders Lee had a goal and assist, and Josh Ho-Sang scored for the Islanders after being an emergency call-up from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League earlier Saturday.
Weight was looking for a spark, and if calling out his players was a way to get the proper response, then his mission was accomplished.
"You always envision, it's easy hindsight right, yeah it's exactly what we were going to do, get the 3-0 lead on the road against St. Louis," Weight said with a grin. "No, it's the way we did it. We took advantage of some plays, but we got pucks in, we made their [defensemen] turn and we were aggressive. We were skating.
"... It’s just that extra work ethic and the tenacity that we were lacking. That was kind of the staple to what we wanted as an effort, and the chorus was exactly that on the bench so that was nice to see."
Tavares said the message was loud and clear.
"I think they always resonate, but certainly I think as players, we know we’re the ones that go out on the ice and obviously have to do the job and execute the system and the framework that they want us to play with," Tavares said. "We weren’t really close to that [Friday] night so we just wanted to get out there and be a lot more competitive like we know we can be. And when we play like that, we know we can play with anyone in the League, so there’s a lot of belief and experience and character in the room. Guys just competed hard. It’s what this league is. There’s 82 games."
Tavares scored his 13th of the season at 3:21 after outworking Parayko behind the net for a 1-0 Islanders lead.
Cizikas made it 2-0 at 10:07 after Greiss made a save on Paul Stastny at one end, and Cizikas followed up Nick Leddy's shot for a rebound goal.
Eberle made it 3-0 after Greiss again made a save on Stastny at one end, and Eberle converted off a 2-on-1 with Andrew Ladd at 13:18.
Ho-Sang made it 4-0 on a shot through traffic that chased Allen at 3:35 of the second.
"We needed to do something, to change the momentum, to help him out," Yeo said. "The way that we were going obviously, things weren't going the right way."
The Blues eventually found their game and started to pepper Greiss, who made save after save and was the beneficiary of some posts and cross bars.
"We're obviously a team that's not going to go back and forth and run and gun," Schenn said. "When you're down three or four, you need to take chances here. We generated chances tonight, guys hit posts, goalie's making good saves on our guys. I don't think it was from a lack of chances, they didn't go in."
Schenn's fifth of the season made it 4-1 on a wrist shot from the right circle at 11:31 of the second.
Upshall scored at 6:41 of the third to make it 4-2, but Lee restored New York's three-goal lead at 15:33.
"They came out hard, they made some good plays," Schenn said of the Islanders. "I think scoring in the first five minutes gave them some energy, some life. We would have liked a better start tonight."
* NOTES -- The Islanders denied Allen his 100th NHL victory. ... Blues left wing Vladimir Sobotka played in his 400th NHL game.
