ST. LOUIS -- If perhaps one of those terrific scoring opportunities goes in early against the Winnipeg Jets, one has to wonder how things would have played out for the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
Bearing down in their chances in a 5-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday at Enterprise Center could have drastically altered the scoreline in this one.
But once the Blues (5-5-1) failed to get the lead, didn't score on their only power play of the game (now 1-for-28) and the Jets capitalized on two of their three power-play opportunities, the Blues got careless with the puck, were sloppy in transition and ended up fizzling out, ending their two-game winning run.
Let's take a look at the three keys from this one:
1. Lack of finish -- This area is quite the understatement.
It started with a Pavel Buchnevich miss in the power play that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo blocked off the near post, and it started a downward trend that snowballed with no end in sight.
Buchnevich also missed out on a breakaway late in the first, Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov then became goalie and blocked a would-be goal from Nick Leddy before Brayden Schenn missed out on what would have been a tap-in had it not been for Jets captain Adam Lowry's stick breaking the play up, then Schenn missed an open net from the slot, Alexey Toropchenko making a poor pass on what should have been a Kasperi Kapanen one-time finish right before Justin Faulk clanking the post late in the period.
There were probably more, but even though the Blues got outshot 37-22 in this one, the shots were misleading to me. Many of Winnipeg's were from low-danger spots, but when the Jets were in high-danger areas, they made their count, and that's the difference.
Buchnevich, who has a goal and two assists in nine games, didn't hold back on himself for his misses.
"I'm just awful. I'm just awful all season," he said. "I don't know what to say. Guys create chances for me, but I can't finish. I don't know. Hopefully one (will) go in. I just have to play better and help the team. Now I don't create anything, doesn't really help t he team. Got to find a way.
"I try to be positive, but it's hard to be positive when you play like that. Different expectation from me. I try to work hard, try helping, but it's not enough right now. I've got to be better."
2. Second period lull -- Down 2-1 entering the period, the Blues felt good about their game, as they should have. I thought they were the better team in the opening 20 minutes, but the proverbial saying: you have to play 60 minutes, and coach Craig Berube voiced that, particularly displeased with the start of the second period in which the Jets hounded and the Blues were hemmed in.
"The second period, we needed more," Berube said. "We needed to come out with a real purpose in the second period and we didn't do that. To me, that's the difference in the game.
"There are opportunities we could have capitalized on and we didn't, but still though, I'm going to go back to the second period, it's not good enough."
Leddy agreed.
"I think we had a few turnovers, me included," Leddy said. "I don't think personally I had the best gaps tonight. A few guys got behind me and created chances. I think the two games prior I think we did a really good job using our feet, getting pucks in deep and the skill took over after that and we created a lot of opportunities."
3. Special teams downfall -- Yes, the Blues had three shots on their lone power play, but the bottom line, they failed to score on another one. Again.
Andin the process, they flounder at the bottom of the league at 1-for-28.
And the PK, it wasn't good enough.
Sure, the second PK goal allowed to Kyle Connor at 4:34 of the second period was a tough break, and a fortunate bounce for the Jets, when Connor's one-timer deflected off Leddy's stick, off the far post and past Binnington on what turned out to be a changeup of a shot that Binnington expected to be a sizzler, the first goal to make it 1-0 by Mark Scheifele at 8:44 after Brandon Saad took a careless tripping penalty trying to stick-handle through Nikolaj Ehlers on the Blues' zone was a complete blown coverage play when Robert Thomas lost Scheifele down low.
"Yeah, missed assignment," Berube said. "Second goal went off Leddy's stick."
It better happen sooner rather than later, but the special teams have to start producing in a positive way, or there will be many more results like this.
