O'Reilly takes blame for Blues' poor start: 'I've been absolutely horrible'

St. Louis Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly provided a scathing self-assessment of his play with his club mired in a five-game losing streak.

"I've been absolutely horrible right now," O'Reilly said, per NHL.com's Lou Korac.

"I'm not really doing anything. I'm kind of fighting for my life right now. I've got to fight to stay in this league, I guess, but I've got to do a lot more, leadership-wise, my own play. If I can do that, just that small thing, I think I can make a big difference. For myself especially, it's pretty pathetic."

O'Reilly has scored just a single goal through eight games this season and is a minus-11. In his previous four campaigns with the Blues, he collected 250 points over 287 contests with a plus-70 rating.

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong recently addressed the Blues' skid to affirm that Craig Berube would stay on as head coach and said he has faith in the roster getting back on track.

"I think Doug's message was clear," O'Reilly said. "This is unacceptable what's going on, and he's absolutely right. We all obviously have to look inside and find our own way out of what's going on. It's pretty much time to figure it out."

The Blues started the season 3-0 but have been outscored 25-8 in five losses since. Their next chance to return to the win column comes Thursday against the New York Islanders.

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