The Blues lost to Utah at home 4-2 on Thursday night, in a game that really wasn't as close as the score indicated. It was 2-2 at one point before Utah pulled away, but the Blues were completely run over. It could've and should've been a lot worse.

Utah dominated in shots on goal 31-15, and dominated in Corsi For at 5v5 53-30. Again, the score wasn't indicative of how badly the Blues were outclassed against Utah. The Blues could hardly possess the puck, and couldn't get any kind of a forecheck going. Brandon Saad told reports after the game via the official St Louis Blues X account, "... they do a good job of holding the blue line and turning pucks over. And for us it's just keeping it simpler, getting pucks in below the goal line, and getting to work. We didn't seem to generate any forecheck time."

Well, at least he's honest. The Blues definitely had no forecheck. They didn't have much of anything. Now for the real kicker: Utah wasn't coming into this game hot -- much the opposite. After starting the season 3-0, Utah had lost 2 of its last 10 games being outscored 34 to 21. Utah was struggling, and the Blues were their get-right game.

I said it on X before the game, the Blues always seem to be terrible against the Coyotes aka Utah. The Blues are now 3-5 in their last 8 against this team, and the wins and losses all follow a similar pattern: the wins are by small margins, the losses are blowout losses. In the 5 losses the Blues have been outscored 25-7. In 3 wins, the Blues outscored them 14-11. Maybe this is just a team that has the Blues number, but it does follow a more concerning pattern that we've seen over the last couple of years with the Blues.

Last season the Blues went a combined 3-5-1 (7 of a possible 18 points) against San Jose (19-54-9, finished last in the Pacific), Chicago (23-53-6, finished last in the Central), and Columbus (27-43-12, finished last in the Metropolitan). The Blues missed the playoffs last season by 6 points. All they needed to do was take care of business against teams that lose more than they win and they could've snuck into a playoff spot.

This is a troubling trend, and so far this season there are warning signs that they haven't put this past them. The Blues were down 4-1 to San Jose before making a comeback and winning 5-4 in OT. The Blues just got run over 4-2 at home by Utah who had lost 2 of its last 10 games. The Blues got embarrassed 5-2 by Montreal who finished last season 30-36-16, last in the Atlantic. If the Blues want to be taken seriously this season, they need to stop having these letdowns and start beating the teams they're supposed to beat. As we saw last season, letting these wins slip away comes back around to bite you when it matters most.