Blues lament 'embarrassing' level of play with slide at seven games

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Louis Blues coach Mike Yeo wasn't afraid to directly address his disappointment in his team following an 8-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

Yeo mentioned several Blues he was happy with and left out the rest following a seventh straight loss.
"I liked what those guys brought," Yeo said. "We had too many guys that didn't match that. The level of some players needs to come up, it's that simple. Too many guys right now that aren't giving us a chance to win hockey games.
"We'll make sure that those guys continue doing that and then we'll make decisions after that as far as who wants to play and who wants to be in the lineup."
Yeo mentioned by name Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester, Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Brodziak, Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn and Dmitrij Jaskin.

The players he didn't mention? Yeo said, "Unhappy with them, yes."
The Blues hadn't lost seven straight in more than eight years (Dec. 26, 2009 to Jan. 7, 2010). St. Louis (34-26-4) has been outscored 16-3 in its past three games and has allowed at least four goals in five of seven.
Yet the Blues are three points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Knowing the window to reach the playoffs is getting smaller and the need for a win bigger, the disappointment, frustration and anger in the postgame locker room was palpable.

"We're completely disconnected in our game," Pietrangelo, the Blues captain, said. "It's unacceptable. That's the reality of it."
Tarasenko, who had two goals, said, "It's embarrassing. Whatever we have now is not enough. That's it."
Yeo expanded on that.
"It's a matter of pride as far as I'm concerned," the coach said. "You give up eight goals, come on. We've given up 16 in the last three games. We've always been one of the top defensive teams. The turnovers that we have and the lack of respect that we have for our goaltenders and for the game of hockey, that's ridiculous. We have guys that aren't scoring and aren't contributing defensively and are not showing nearly enough as far as what they want to bring to the table in terms of playing for their teammates and defending and being hard to play against."
St. Louis plays again Wednesday, when they host the Detroit Red Wings (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV).
"We got a job to do, and tomorrow we gotta wake up," Pietrangelo said. "[We're] not happy about it, so the effort better be there tomorrow."