ST. LOUIS -- When someone writes a story off a 5-2 loss, the narrative tends to lead towards playing poorly.
That turned out to be the case as the game went on between the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. The Blues had poor moments during the game and were outshot 37-22, but it's hard to overlook the number of golden scoring opportunities the Blues missed in this one that could have completely altered the outcome.
No denying the Jets (6-4-2), who seem to own the Blues (5-5-1) in recent seasons. Winnipeg converted its high-danger scoring chances, but the Blues ... hoo boy.
With that in mind, let's dive right into the three-period takeaways:
* First Period -- Right off the bat, the Blues get a power play. They get a chance to start to build on their paltry 1-for-27 unit that is last in the league ... by a wide margin.
Colton Parayko was hauled down and Neal Pionk was in the box for tripping at 4:31.
The Blues would get three shots on Connor Hellebuyck, and the best one came off the stick of Pavel Buchnevich, who like many can't seem to buy a goal right now. His effort on an empty Jets net had Hellebuyck out of position, but defenseman Dylan DeMelo slid across and sealed the near side saving a goal to start a bad omen for the Blues.
Despite the near-miss, the Blues were playing well. They were implementing what they had done the past two games -- both wins -- and were outshooting the Jets 10-3, but Brandon Saad made the first critical mistake. He tried to stick-handle out of his zone through Nikolaj Ehlers and tripped the Jets forward at 8:21.
Mark Scheifele, a Blues killer in his career, one-timed a power-play goal home 23 seconds into the man-advantage making it 1-0.
"I liked our first period," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought we came out with the right purpose until that penalty, they scored on it, kind of killed our momentum a little bit."
The Jets had the lead and their momentum started swinging up. They increased it to 2-0 on Pionk's precision shot from the right circle at 16:15 after Jordan Kyrou's initial pass off the d-zone boards was picked off, then Kyrou lost the ensuing wall battle and the puck winds up in the back of the net.
But Robert Thomas, who now has a goal in four straight games, sniped a puck home 40 seconds later making it 2-1, giving the Blues some reward for a mostly well-played period.
Buchnevich had a chance at redemption late in the period but lost control and fanned on a breakaway attempt in the final minute, and he didn't hold back on himself because of it.
* Second Period -- This is where the Blues started hemming and hawing their way in the game. Their transition game started getting sloppy, in their zone and in the neutral zone, and the Jets were picking up steam.
Then Kevin Hayes took a ticky-tack tripping penalty near the center ice line at 3:49, and another Blues killer -- Kyle Connor -- once again made the Blues PK suffer. This time, it was Connor's one-timer from the right circle that caromed off the stick of Nick Leddy, off the far post and past Jordan Binnington at 4:34 for a 3-1 lead.
"They're in the NHL for a reason. They've got a lot of skill and they made plays," Leddy said of the Jets. "The second one was a little unlucky, off my stick and post and in, but we'll watch tape and go back and learn from it."
The Blues were chasing the game by two goals again, but from about the midway point on in the second, they were creating again.
Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov turned into the third Jets goalie of the night when he, like DeMelo, helped Hellebuyck by blocking a Leddy would-be goal at 9:12.
Mad at him, because I played with him at Detroit," Leddy said. "Obviously I'll have to give him a hard time, but I just tried to get it off quick and he made a great play."
Brayden Schenn had himself two golden scoring chances with over six minutes left when a puck was put into the crease by Jordan Kyrou but the puck was tied up by the stick of Jets forward Adam Lowry, then Schenn missed another Kyrou set-up by firing wide of an open net in the slot.
"Yeah, first and second, I think we got tons of chances," Buchnevich said. "Couple times, three, four times it stay in the crease and we don't finish it. It's some games like that and we've got to figure out how to finish and hopefully get a better result."
The Blues weren't finished.
Alexey Toropchenko and Kasperi Kapanen worked a nice 2-on-1, but Toropchenko's pass wasn't good for Kapanen, who was ready for the one-timer to the left of Hellebuyck, and Justin Faulk hit the post moments later inside the final minute.
"We did get some opportunities, we didn't finish on them in the second," Berube said.
* Third Period -- There was this feeling that if the Blues could get the next goal, this game was within reach, but Binnington had one of his rare mistakes this season when he went behind the net to play a puck, not come up with it cleanly, Scheifele did and he fed Connor for an easy finish in front 1:02 in for a 4-1 lead.
That was the end of it.
"'Binner' came out and played that puck and ended up in our net kind of ... it's tough then," Berube said.
Yes it was.
Schenn made it a two-goal deficit at 4-2 on a shot from the left circle that Hellebuyck should have stopped at 8:08, but that was just one of four shots the Blues generated on goal in the third, and Cole Perfetti's empty-netter at 17:32 sealed Winnipeg's 5-2 win.
