RECAP: Red Wings plan to use NHL’s holiday break as a reset after being shut out by Blues, 4-0

DETROIT -- In their final game before the NHL’s holiday break, the Detroit Red Wings were shut out by the St. Louis Blues, 4-0, at Little Caesars Arena on Monday night.

Making his 17th start of the season, goalie Cam Talbot finished with 17 saves for Detroit (13-17-4; 30 points), who were without Ben Chiarot and Simon Edvinsson (upper-body injuries). In net for St. Louis (16-16-4; 36 points) goaltender Jordan Binnington turned away all 19 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season.

Captain Dylan Larkin said it will be critical for the Red Wings, who have dropped three games in a row, to use their downtime this week to rest and reset.

"Get away, spend time with your families and try to come back refreshed," Larkin said. "It's been difficult to come to the rink and continue to build yourself up, and then have games and performances like this. When we come back, we got to push before another break. It's a lot of games. We got to get something going. I hope guys take advantage of the rest."

A similiar postgame sentiment was shared by head coach Derek Lalonde.

"Just a little out of rhtyhm," Lalonde said. "The break is coming at a really good time. Obviously, our last probably two-and-a-half games we're definitely searching, a little fragile maybe. That's frustrating [after] the way this homestand started."

The game’s first goal was scored by Dylan Holloway at 16:14 of the first period. Jordan Kyrou handled the puck near the boards before passing it behind him to Cam Fowler, who set up Kyrou for a one-timer in the high slot to put the Blues up 1-0.

Giving St. Louis to a two-goal cushion just 18 seconds into the second period, Alexandre Texier sniped a wrist shot from the left face-off circle into the back of the net to make it 2-0.

Holloway’s second tally of the night came at 7:45 of the second period, when he finished Brayden Schenn’s feed from below the goal line in the slot to pad the lead to 3-0.

“I think we had nine or 10 shots, whatever it was, after two periods," Larkin said. "That’s unacceptable. We got to get to the net to score goals.”

After the Red Wings pulled Talbot with 4:12 remaining, the Blues added another when Holloway scored an empty-net goal to record the hat trick and close the scoring at 4-0.

Detroit struggled establishing its game in the offensive zone against St. Louis, who outshot the Red Wings, 21-19, and killed their lone power-play opportunity.

“Talbs kept us in it for a lot of the game tonight,” J.T. Compher said. “Some huge saves, we just were giving up too much. Giving up too many odd-man breaks all night, and that wasn’t the gameplan. We didn’t execute nearly enough tonight.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will be back in action when it hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Lalonde on if missing Edvinsson and Chiarot had a significant influence on Monday's end result

"D were fine tonight. I thought our D gave us a really good game, considering where it's at. Obviously, any team loses two top left-shot D, it's going to look like that. But I thought our D, our young guys that aren't even everyday NHL guys, did their job."

Larkin on what the club must do to have consistent success

"We played against the Leafs at home, especially on home ice, it was probably our best performance of the year. We go from one week to this week, and we play like that tonight. That's our identity. You go watch that game [against Toronto], we were on our toes, forechecking, skating connected and had great shot scrambles. All the things Newsy talks about, we did them. We had a great performance. I don't think we can't do that consistently. That's what it's got to look like for us."

Larkin on if there's been a lack of energy the past few games

“I don’t know. It’s hard to make excuses. When you show up to play, you got to show up to play. There’s just not enough guys doing that right now, myself included. You got to be committed to compete. We’re just not doing that. We’re very disconnected. The forwards and the D on the ice; the wingers and the centermen. It’s just all over. There’s just a lot of disconnect, a lot of skating. A lot of hard work, but we’re not getting anything accomplished. I never really think our work ethic is poor.”

Compher on the communication between players on the bench to try to get each other going

“It was not enough execution, not enough jam. We turned the puck over way too much tonight to give ourselves a chance to go play offense. And like Dylan said, get to the net and create. We just fed their transition all night.”