If you watched tonights debacle you might have seen the amazing turnaround in periods 2 on 3. If you threw up after Los Angeles scored 4 goals in the first and turned it off, I can’t blame you but you won’t believe what I’m about to tell you.

The Blues dominated 40 of the 60 min in tonights game.

Laugh all you want, but I can back up everything I say.

Before we get to the good let’s breakdown why this was such a horrendous loss.

The first period might be the worst period I’ve EVER seen in my 31 short years of being a Blues fan. I haven’t seen a Blues team get so outplayed and just look lost . I’ve seen them get their ass handed to them, but it was because they didn’t have enough talent, not because they just didn’t care.

It’s no secret that the Blues success relies on their transition game and with Pietrangelo out, it was non exsistant for 20 minutes. The Kings saw the Blues were moving in slow motion and couldn’t clear their own zone and they pounced. It took them 31 seconds to get on the board and that would set the tone for the first period.

LA was on the go from the start and didn’t let up. Mike Richard was left untouched and he seemed to have his way in the Blues’ zone. He was constantly in the face of Elliot, as were a few others as well.

The Blues refused to play a body and decided to just stand around. There were Kings EVERYWHERE in front of the crease. One of the mainstay’s of the Blues is to play a solid team defense and they just decided not to in the first period. You can’t let a talented LA team have numbers in front of your net and not expect bad things to happen.

Even on the power play the Blues’ lacsidasial play let Anze Kopitar score a highlight reel goal. You can’t give away goals on the power play.

And let me say this right now, Brian Elliot WASN’T the reason the Blues lost. If you’re blaming him you weren’t watching the same game I was. With Jaroslav Halak out for the rest of this round, Elliot will have to be carried off the ice for Jake Allen to see the crease.

This might have been the worst period in Blues history. It was THAT bad.

The so called fight between Crombeen and King wasn’t much of anything.

The first period ended with the Kings up 4-0 and then it happened. I’m sure Hitch had a few choice words for the team but whatever it was, it worked.

Andy McDonald comes out and scores 18 seconds into the second period and gives the team a lift. The Kings weren’t offended and came back 1:10 later to make it 5-1, scoring on their first shot of the second period.

Remeber when I said you could laugh at me?

The Kings had two, TWO shots on goal in the second period!

They had 16 shots in the first period alone, but managed only 5 in the final two periods. The Blues went from being schlubs to actually playing like a real team. One of those reasons was the physical play picked up.

After that hit, when Penner lined up against Oshie, he told him “nice hit”.

The Blues had finally found their footing and showed who they really were, but it was a little WAY too late. This game was over almost before it started. While the Blues did come back to form, it doesn’t excuse the first period.

The Blues may have dominated the final 40 min, but the first 20 were so bad it didn’t matter.