Fear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you have nothing to lose or everything to lose, you’re better off fully committing to the fight and using that fear to your benefit.
Coach Mike Yeo noted last week that the Blues played with a sense of fear during their recent six-game winning streak. That sense of uncertainty helped propel them back into playoff contention.
While the Blackhawks eagerly attempt to sink their season, the Blues must find that balance between playing with fear and under control once again to end their three-game winless streak.
Some teams can be frozen by fear. Others can be motivated by it. The Blues must strike a healthy balance and push themselves out of a funk that threatens to derail their playoff hopes.
“That’s what winning hockey is,” Yeo said. “Obviously, you need the mental toughness as a player to understand that you need desperation in every single shift, that guys are counting on you to make plays. And so you know what, you just gotta get it done.
“There’s no other way to put it. Obviously, we’ve got a plan. We’ve got all that kind of stuff. Really it’s gonna come from our heart and our minds right now. We just have to push this one behind us, but we have to do better. We have to find a way to be better, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Coaches and teams will tell you there’s no good time for a four-game winless streak, especially only a few weeks after a seven-game winless streak.
But the penultimate and final weeks of the season would be miserable times to go on a four-game winless streak because there is not enough time to recover for a team fighting for a wild-card spot.
The Blues must snap their three-game skid Wednesday night when the rival Blackhawks visit Scottrade Center. The Blues have been outscored 10-2 over their last two games, including a 6-0 rout Saturday night against an Arizona Coyotes squad that has the worst record in the Western Conference and the third-worst record in the National Hockey League.
The stumble in Arizona was just the latest inexplicable no-show performance in a season with at least half a dozen similar embarrassments by the Blues, who at least could say they were outclassed by a much better roster Monday in the disappointing 4-2 setback against the Capitals.
The Blackhawks, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008, are much closer in class to the Coyotes than the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals this season.
Unlike the Capitals, though, the Blackhawks will arrive at Scottrade Center with bad intentions.
In many ways, the Blackhawks could be the last team the Blues would want to face twice in their final three games. There is no love lost between the two squads that have dominated the Western Conference’s Central Division for most of the last decade.
There’s a reason they say misery loves company. This is more than a case of an opponent wanting to play spoiler. This is more personal against a hated rival.
There’s no such thing as a meaningless game between the Blackhawks and the Blues, so you can expect a playoff-like atmosphere when they meet Wednesday at Scottrade Center and again Friday at the United Center in Chicago.
The injury-plagued Blues are the better team, especially because the Blackhawks’ goaltenders would even struggle to catch a cold in this weather without All-Star Corey Crawford in front of the net.
Whether it’s a combined lack of focus, lack of preparation or tightness, the Blues have not risen up to the challenge since the Vegas Golden Knights ended their six-game winning streak in overtime last Friday in Las Vegas.
They’ve been impotent way too often on the power play this season. The weak power play must be considered part of the Blues’ identity this season. Still, they must improve on the power play if they hope to reach the playoffs and hope to advance.
Yeo is adamant that he still believes that this team can reach the playoffs. If they win their next three, they’ll get there. If they lose the next three without picking up any overtime points, they’ll be on vacation at this time next week.
You cannot win three in a row if you don’t win the first one, and that starts Wednesday night.
They must derive energy and passion from a sense of fear again. There’s no denying that the pressure is on the Blues.
“Exactly, yeah,” defenseman Colton Parayko said. “The pressure is on. … You have to be prepared for a full 60 minutes. That’s just the nature of the game right now. Yes, we’re going to have to play a full 60 and make sure that we give it our best.”
The Blues don’t have much wiggle room anymore. There’s only one way to guarantee that they won’t need any outside help to back into the playoffs.
“Just win games,” Parayko said. “Come together as a team, do what we got to do to be successful, take care of each other, look after each other and just get the job done.”
To get that job done, the Blues must dispatch a Blackhawks team that would love nothing more than to ruin their rival’s season.