— What seemed like a perfect set-up was, except it was for the St. Louis Blues, not the Ducks.
In a flat display fraught with uncharacteristic lapses, the Ducks lost, 2-0, Thursday in a game that going in appeared to be the least challenging for the Ducks on a four-game trip against returning Western Conference playoff teams.
Before the game, Blues Coach Ken Hitchcock reeled off a list of injuries: centers David Backes (concussion), Paul Stastny (lingering shoulder pain), Joakim Lindstrom (sick) and forward T.J. Oshie (concussion) were all out.
Injury losses such as that on a team that had been beat four straight times by the Ducks, including a shutout at Honda Center 11 days earlier, might have been insurmountable.
"Teams that are down their best players, they dig deep," Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I knew they were going to be very good."
Boudreau sounded those same warning alarms to his team earlier Thursday.
"Half the problem is when you point it out, it gets everyone talking about it instead of just going out and playing," Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said.
"We were standing around watching. You can make mistakes on the ice, but not moving our legs, not [thinking], that's our fault."
The Blues (5-3-1) got it going when forward Alexander Steen screened Ducks goalie John Gibson and deflected a shot by defenseman Carl Gunnarsson to the net just four minutes 29 seconds into the game.
Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler flubbed a pass that St. Louis center Maxim Lapierre intercepted and scooted to forward Ryan Reaves for a 2-0 lead early in the third period.
Blues backup goalie Jake Allen took care of the rest, stopping all 24 shots he faced while the Ducks (8-3) had 13 other shots blocked, missed 11 others and committed eight giveaways.
The Ducks "didn't execute the way we need to, and I'm just as big a part of that as anyone," Fowler said. "There's no worse feeling in the world. That's the type of pass I make in my sleep. No excuse, I feel terrible."
Getzlaf and Ducks goals leader Corey Perry combined for two shots on goal, both in the third period.
"Guys were trying to be too cute.… We couldn't make the simple pass out of our zone, we were putting it on their tape," Boudreau said.
Nearly midway through the third, the Ducks had a two-man advantage for 20 seconds in which Perry had an open look and took his shot, only to see it knocked down and dribble away from the post to Allen's left.
"It's on us to be better," Perry said. "Look at the shots we had. No traffic, no second opportunities. And [St. Louis] played well, they played that dump-and-chase, that hard game the Blues play."
The Ducks' scuffling was immediate and worsened when defenseman Mark Fistric suffered an upper-body injury in the first period and didn't return.
In the second, the Ducks were restricted to four shots on goal, with Perry falling back on his head when tripped and briefly leaving to the dressing room.
"We've got to get someone else scoring goals," Boudreau said, a nod to goal-less forwards Emerson Etem, Jakob Silfverberg, Nate Thompson and Rickard Rakell.
TONIGHT
AT DALLAS STARS
When: 5:30 p.m.
On the air: Prime Ticket. Radio: AM 830.
Etc.: In a rematch of the Ducks' first-round Western Conference playoff series triumph, the Stars have added center Jason Spezza (10 assists).
lance.pugmire@latimes.com
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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