Blues head towards the NHL trade deadline with a 4-1 loss at New Jersey – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

NEWARK, N.J. _ The Blues have been operating on twin tracks, striving to stay in the playoff chase this season while also retooling for the long haul.

Now they may be settling on the latter track.

The Blues fell 4-1 to the New Jersey Devils here Thursday in their last game before the NHL trade deadline. They have gone 3-6-1 in the last 10 games to fall off the pace in the Western Conference playoff chase.

So general manager Doug Armstrong is pondering his options ahead of the 2 p.m. (Central Time) deadline.

With the Pittsburgh Penguins working a deal to send Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes, Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich may now be the most attractive forward available in a trade.

Armstrong doesn’t appear to ne eager to trade Buchnevich, but if a team offers enough long-term assets – premium draft picks and/or prospects – then he may make the move Friday to expedite the retooling.

With the Blues faltering as they head into the season’s final quarter, the organization could put even more focus on the future while adding more young talent to the new Robert Thomas/Jordan Kyrou nucleus.

But the Blues players don’t want to give up on the season.

“It would have been nice to get a win tonight to try to make a statement,” Blues center Robert Thomas said. “But it’s out of our hands.”

While the Blues aren’t facing the sort of selloff the team experienced last season, the deadline could trigger change. The players have been well are of that possibility during the past few weeks.

“I know it always weighs heavy on guys’ minds this time of year,” Blues winger Brandon Saad said. “It’s never fun to be a part of. So we’ll see how it goes.”

The Devils were playing their second game under interim coach Travis Green, who replaced Lindy Ruff. They came out flying and outshot the Blues 16-5 in the first period and took a 2-0 lead on two Timo Meier goals.

“I thought we were really light in the first period,” interim Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “In the (defensive) zone there was a lot of stick checking instead of going through bodies and plays, which probably would have alleviated a lot of the issues of having to defend.

“We find ourselves down 2-0 and then we decide that we want to be physical. We spent less time in the (defensive) zone in the second and the third and we were able to get a forecheck going and spend time in the offensive zone, but it was too little too late at that point.”

The Blues gained some momentum with their puck possession during a second-period power play, then Saad scored an even-strength goal to cut the lead to 2-1.

Scott Perunovich hit the inside of the right post with a shot and Saad snapped home the weak side rebound. At that point, the Blues appeared to be in good shape.

“We did a better job after that of responding, but when you start as slow as we did, it’s tough to battle back in the game,” Saad said.

When Meier completed his hat trick by jumping on the ice and converting a pass into the high slot, the Devils regained their two-goal margin.

“The third goal was frustrating to let in,” Thomas said.

“Third goal, we were playing well at that time,” Bannister said. “We put ourselves in a good position to get ourselves through the rest of the period, get ourselves into the third.

“I just thought we got a little bit lazy on the routes of our back-check and our tracking. Pretty loose (line) change that I thought the refs should have been more aware of, but at the end of the day if we work back quicker that play doesn’t develop regardless.”

New Jersey kept the Blues at bay during the third period and they tacked on a late empty-netter. The Blues are now 1-2 on this grueling five-game East Coast road swing.

“We’re just playing too light,” Bannister said. “I don’t know . . . they want an easy game and it’s not going to be easy, We have to play harder. We have to be more physically accountable to each other and harder to play against.”