O'Reilly takes blame for Blues' latest first-round exit after Game 4 loss

Ryan O'Reilly said he blamed himself following another first-round exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the St. Louis Blues, this time to the Colorado Avalanche following a
5-2 loss in Game 4
of the Stanley Cup First Round at Enterprise Center on Sunday.

"I'm very disappointed in myself; it was pretty pathetic," the Blues captain said. "I didn't really do much this series. If I'm not doing my job, I can't expect anyone else to do theirs, so it's tough. I have to obviously improve and especially in the crucial times, it's very disappointing."
The Blues, eliminated in six games by the Vancouver Canucks last season after winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, were outscored 20-7 by the Avalanche. Colorado's power play was 6-for-12 (50.0 percent), and its penalty kill was 7-for-9 (77.8 percent).
O'Reilly chalked it up to the Avalanche being the better team.
"Oh, clearly," he said. "We didn't even give ourselves a chance. I thought we would have been able to kind of tilt the ice a bit more. With the way they play, they're going to have momentum at times, but we sure didn't grab it back like we needed to and sustain pressure. We were sporadic, it wasn't consistent, and clearly you see what happens. They dominated us."
RELATED: [Complete Blues vs. Avalanche series coverage]
O'Reilly predicted a Blues upset prior to the start of the series. This, despite the fact the Avalanche won their last five regular-season games and the Presidents' Trophy, awarded to the NHL team with the best record in the regular season.
Said O'Reilly before the series opener six days ago, "We're going to have some fun and we're going to beat them."
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was asked if he felt the proclamation motivated his team.
"Uh ... yeah, it did," he said.
The Blues failed to contain an Avalanche team that had 11 players with at least one goal. Goalie Philipp Grubauer even earned a secondary assist in the win on Sunday.
Colorado's top line of forwards Landeskog (two goals, six assists), Nathan MacKinnon (six goals, three assists) and Mikko Rantanen (one goal, six assists) did most of the damage.
"They're a very good line, they're going to get chances and going to make plays," O'Reilly said. "But still, I had the opportunity early to kind of see a lot of that line and play them harder and I'll just say I didn't do my job."

O'Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2019 voted as MVP of the playoffs, led the Blues in goals (24), even-strength goals (18), and game-winning goals (four) in 56 regular-season games this season.
He had no goals, three assists, nine shots on goal and a minus-7 rating in the series.
"We didn't really represent the culture that's here, that we built here," O'Reilly said. "We didn't defend like we know we have in what's been seen in the past and I feel myself, being the captain, I have to find a way to maintain that because that's what made this team and this organization so tough for so many years. That culture of playing hard and playing as a team."
The Blues power play, which ranked sixth in the NHL during the regular season (23.2 percent; 36-for-155), went 2-for-9 (22.2 percent) against the Avalanche.
St. Louis was without several key players. It played the last two games without defensemen Justin Faulk (upper body) and Robert Bortuzzo (upper body), who were injured in Game 2, and were without defenseman Vince Dunn (upper body) and leading scorer David Perron (NHL COVID-19 protocol) the entire series. Defenseman Jake Walman was removed from COVID-19 protocol on Friday and played in Game 4.
"It's tough to think about [injuries] because I do think we have some great depth and guys that did come on, especially on the back end and play very well for us," O'Reilly said. "But injuries are tough. Obviously we weren't the best team and it's something we can't control but it is what it is."