While the Pittsburgh Penguins' pasting of the Blues was still drying Tuesday night, an investigation into the cause of the team's horrendous performance already had been launched.

Outside the team's locker room, Blues coach Andy Murray was huddled up with strength coach Nelson Ayotte, apparently addressing the physical preparation leading up to the listless 5-1 loss to the Penguins.

Upon arrival in St. Louis, the team had a players-only meeting at the airport to search for answers to their 1-3-1 record since opening the season with back-to-back wins over Detroit.

And Wednesday, Blues President John Davidson said that management would meet soon to discuss patterns of inconsistency, beginning with slow starts, which ballooned into a team-wide, game-long epidemic in Pittsburgh.

"You don't carry a briefcase to work and know how the day is going to turn out to be," Davidson said. "Nothing is scripted in sports. Once the game starts, it has its twists and turns. For whatever reason, we don't seem to be collectively ready at the start of games. Whether it be mental, physical ... I don't know what it is."

Going into back-to-back home games against Minnesota on Friday and Dallas on Saturday, the Blues have a record of 3-3-1, but most would agree that it could be much worse.

The club has trailed after the first period in five of its seven games but came back to win two.

In the first period of its seven games, the Blues have been outshot 88-41 and outscored 9-4 and have committed 16 of their 32 minor penalties.

The only decent start was Saturday against Anaheim, but the Blues needed superb penalty killing and goaltending to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, en route to a 5-0 victory.

In the second period this season, the Blues are outshooting their opponents 87-63 and outscoring them 11-7 and have taken only 10 penalties.

"Once we get our rhythm going, we're a good hockey team," Davidson said. "But we're not getting our rhythm going. We're being outshot early, we're taking penalties early, chasing (the opponent) early.

"We as a team have to worry about our team, just worry about us. Don't worry about playing Pittsburgh, Calgary, Anaheim ... worry about us. We're a very competitive club that should be getting better. Let's worry about that."

Interestingly, the one area that plagued the Blues last season could be considered adequate thus far. In 5-on-5 play last season, the team scored 133 goals and allowed 142. Through seven games this season, though, the Blues have netted 13 goals and surrendered 10.

Goaltending also was a question, specifically whether Chris Mason could continue his hot play from last season. Mason is 1-3-1 with a .900 save percentage, but many would consider him one of the team's best performers to date. Mason and backup netminder Ty Conklin rank No. 15 in the league with a combined goals-against average of 2.83.

Defensively, while it's clear the Blues are missing Barret Jackman and could also use a healthy Eric Brewer, the overall performance on the blue line has been steady.

Roman Polak has answered the call to play more minutes, and Erik Johnson is getting better with each game. Mike Weaver, Darryl Sydor, Tyson Strachan and Carlo Colaiacovo have been decent.

The club hasn't been hurt by its defensive play, and it should expect some help soon. Jackman is expected to resume skating with the team today, and while a timetable for Brewer is still unknown, he's practicing on a daily basis.

Where the Blues are struggling for production is with their forwards.

Brad Boyes was the team leader in goals the past two years with 33 in 2008-09 and 43 in '07-08.

Boyes had seven goals after eight games last year, but he has just one through seven games this season. David Backes netted 31 goals last season and has only one this year. David Perron had 50 points a year ago but remains pointless through seven games.

"I don't like to look at individually; I like to look at it as team play," Davidson said. "You can't point to it and say, 'If this guy was better, we'd win.' If we play better collectively, the individual stuff will fall into place."