Mark Purdy: St. Louis Blues postseason return to San Jose evokes a haunting past - Inside Bay Area

The calendar said April. The weather outside said springtime. The noise inside said playoffs.

But once the puck dropped Monday at HP Pavilion, there was a heavy whiff of February nostalgia in the air.

And not the glorious, dreamy sort of nostalgia.

Remember that awful nine-game road trip two months ago, the one where the Sharks flailed and failed and played so poorly, they were lucky to win twice and nearly fell out of playoff contention?

Monday was like the 10th game that never happened on that February sojourn. The Sharks lost to the St. Louis Blues by the most misleading 4-3 score ever.

Here's why: With four minutes remaining in the third period, St. Louis held a 4-1 lead, on merit. The Blues were thoroughly in control much of the evening before allowing two late goals that ultimately meant as much as Patrick Marleau's scoring line for the series so far: Zero goals, zero assists.

But give credit to Sharks captain Joe Thornton. He refused the bait when a questioner helpfully suggested the late flurry was a very positive sign. Thornton nodded slightly but quickly dismissed the premise.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Thornton said. "We've got to sharpen it up here. We don't play again till Thursday. We've got a lot of work to do before then."

Meanwhile, Sharks coach Todd McLellan admitted he was pondering some lineup changes.

"We've got to find a group that can win," he said.

In

other words, February effort doesn't cut it. There have been other substandard home playoff performances by our beloved Los Tiburones over the years. But the second and third periods of this one were as disappointing as any two periods in memory.

After a strong and hard-hitting start led to a 1-1 tie at the first intermission, the Sharks gave up a goal to the Blues barely a minute into the second period and seemed to fall into a funk. Two more Blues goals followed. More funk ensued.

Last spring in the first round, the Sharks came back from a four-goal deficit in a game against the Los Angeles Kings. But these Blues are not the collapsible Kings. These Blues know how to play with a lead, know how to minimize an opponent's pushes in the offensive zone, know how to irritate and frustrate.

"They're very good defensively," said McLellan. "They're strong and they get to rebounds."

The easy way to point the blamestick would be at the penalty kill. But that's old news. The Sharks' kill had been pathetic most of the winter and finished the season ranked worst in the league at home -- and 29th out of 30 overall. Although the PK improved toward the end of the season, it still wasn't awesome. Monday was just a regression to the deeper depths.

More troubling in this Game 3, which gave the Blues a 2-1 lead in the series, was how the Sharks could not sustain an offensive attack. Again and again, the puck would go to the net and St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott would leave a rebound in front of him or off to the side. But no Shark could get to the puck for a follow-up, as the Blues cleared it out or played keepaway.

The situation was especially noticeable because three of Blues' four goals were either on deflections or second chances. Meanwhile, the Sharks were one and done.

"We didn't have any time of possession," said Sharks forward Joe Pavelski. "We had one chance, a lot. It might be a mater of winning more battles, winning more faceoffs or simply winning a puck race."

"We don't seem to be holding the pucks in their zone very well," said defenseman Dan Boyle. "You know, we don't even have to score ... just keep it in there. It wears them down, takes away their will to go the other way."

All of this brought a smile to the white-haired man behind the St. Louis bench, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock.

"That's been our game," Hitchcock said of the one-and-done success. "We want no time in our zone. We want to play fast defensively."

The Sharks' performance over the season's final three weeks -- nine victories in 13 games -- gave rise to the notion that maybe they had finally figured out a successful formula. The final week of the season, with impressive two-game sweeps over both Dallas and Los Angeles, inflated that belief. A victory in Game 1 against the Blues pumped it up even more.

But now, after losses in Game 2 and Game 3, deflation is upon us. And unless the scenario changes in Thursday night's Game 4, the Sharks' confidence balloon could really start leaking.

"The next game is absolutely huge," Boyle said. "You know, we've got to come out big and get the second win and then we start over."

He's right. It's April. Not February.

Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5092.