from Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

Young Blues forward Robby Fabbri dabbed at his forehead, shook his head and acknowledged that he had no answer late Monday night. Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was stumped by the question as well.

Why in heck have the Blues not been able to own Scottrade Center during these Stanley Cup playoffs? Veteran captain David Backes notes that the Blues might suffer because they get “a little cuter at home” at the expense of their ugly game.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock didn’t buy that assessment.

Here’s the only thing that we know for sure: The Blues’ latest slip at home has put them on the brink of elimination in the Western Conference finals. The San Jose Sharks moved within a victory of the Stanley Cup Finals by beating the Blues 6-3 Monday night in Game 5 at Scottrade Center.

“Our expectations are high and we want to do well for the fans,” Hitchcock said after the Blues dropped to 4-6 at home this postseason. “Sometimes that cocktail doesn’t mix very well. I mean, if we could have eliminated the errors. There was a tremendous amount of effort today, but we did make big errors and they came back and haunted us.”

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Game highlights are below...