It’s hard toexplain the happenings of Saturday’s St. Louis Blues 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

Especially after the Blues (3-4-1) led by four goals.

It’s hard to fathom coughing up a four-goal lead in this game, especially after the Blues played so well but it happened for their third straight loss (0-2-1).

Jake Neighbours scored twice, Robert Thomas, Jimmy Snuggerud and Justin Faulk each had two assists, and to make matters worse, Thomas played one shift in the third period and left the game with an upper-body injury.

Thomas played one shift in the third period and when he left the ice after a 47-second shift with 17:58 remaining in the game, he did not return, and coach Jim Montgomery had no update after the game.

Let’s do our best and get into the game observations:

* After playing textbook hockey, Blues played too passive, mismanaged game after some bad puck luck – The Blues started off this game playing exactly how they wanted to have success: playing north, checking in the offensive zone and with a purpose.

Brayden Schenn’s line with Jordan Kyrou and Mathieu Joseph (and Dylan Holloway when there) set the tone early and the rest followed suit.

Defensemen were making proper pinches, keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone and it showed when the Blues outshot the Red Wings 13-4 in the opening 20 minutes and led 2-0.

They wanted a good start and got it, especially since first periods have not been good, outscored 9-3.

They started the same way in the second period, playing on their toes and playing with the puck, moving it sharp and crisp, in stride and building that lead to 4-0 at 3:12 of the second period when Neighbours scored his second of the game off a very nifty pass by Thomas:

And when one team fell behind by four goals (Detroit), it was lit into during a timeout by coach Todd McLellan. The Red Wings (6-3-0), who were blasted on Thursday, 7-2, by the New York Islanders, got quite the pick-me-up from their coach, who was obviously frustrated with the team’s play to that point.

But even after a couple of bad-break goals against them towards the end of the second period, one by Emmitt Finnie at 18:34 when a pass deflected off Faulk’s stick in the right spot, followed by J.T. Compher’s high tip at 19:01, it was still a 4-3 game:

But instead of just shaking off the ill effects of those goals, the Blues still had the lead. They had the chance to grab things back and play like it did for most of that game to that point.

Their game management completed flipped back to bad habits, and inexplicably, there’s no reason why it needed to change.

But instead, they went back to being passive and playing not to lose. They were chasing a game they led, and ultimately, one mistake, a turnover by Neighbours in the offensive zone, led to Alex DeBrincat’s game-tying goal at 10:01 of the third that made it 4-4, and on Simon Edvinsson’s go-ahead goal that made it 5-4 at 10:48, the Blues were caught chasing a loose puck that wound up at the left point and a wrister caromed off Schenn and past Binnington and this team was shell-shocked.

The Blues had one shot on goal halfway through the third period and wound up playing the game not to lose instead of re-grabbing it.

They had so many guys playing well to the point that things started turning Detroit’s way, it all goes for naught with the game’s final result after Edvinsson potted an empty-netter with 1:13 left to cap the comeback for the Red Wings and collapse by the Blues.

These were two points that should have been in the bank and frittered away, points teams remember at the end of a season if it comes down to making the playoffs or not, or send a group spiraling in the wrong direction.

* Power play came through – The Blues were wanting – and needing results with the man advantage and it was sharp going 2-for-4.

Jordan Kyrou got it all started with a terrific shot at 7:43 of the opening period after some good puck movement that started with Schenn checking in the offensive zone to prevent a clear and maintained possession in the zone:

And when Pavel Buchnevich redirected in Holloway’s pinpoint pass from the slot 59 seconds into the second that made it 3-0, the power play was 2-for-2 at that point:

Even the third man advantage, the Blues had good movement and opportunities but weren’t able to convert. You can live with that. They finished with seven shots on goal in four tries, but unfortunately for them, the last one with 3:53 remaining in the game failed to produce quality opportunities down a goal.

* No issues with Kessel’s minor – Yes, Matthew Kessel’s cross checking penalty on Lucas Raymond at 6:25 of the second started the Red Wings’ comeback when Jonatan Berggren’s one-timer from the bottom of the right circle made it 4-1 at 7:52, but I have no issues one iota with it.

From the Blues’ perspective, you can’t have the opposition grill-guarding your goalie, and the same thing happened later in the period when Cam Fowler took exception to Marco Kasper bumping Jordan Binnington.

And if you’re Detroit, you want to see that. That’s part of the game, and for Kessel, he wanted to make sure to send a message to Raymond. It’s up to the penalty kill to get a job done, and right now, the penalty kill is 25th in the league at 72 percent, and that just doesn’t cut it.

* Jimmy Snuggerud looked good – For all the collapse talk, and rightfully so, Snuggerud looked good out there after a couple games in which the rookie learned some hard lessons.

Snuggerud was attacking in zone, and he even hit a goal post that the Blues wished they had now; it could have given them a 5-0 lead at the time.

But Snuggerud finished with four shots on goal on 10 attempts and was a plus-2 in the game in 15:12 of ice time.

He needs to be attacking in the zone, needs to be thinking shoot the puck, and he was doing that.

* Jake Neighbours one unfortunate mistake will overlook a strong game – That’s the business we live in, and fans will remember more so the turnover that led to DeBrincat’s game-tying goal, but with two more goals, Neighbours not leads the Blues with six and when the Blues were playing well, it was the one driving the net front play that resulted in his first, particularly, that made it 2-0 at 12:54 of the first:

He finished off Faulk’s pass by being on the doorstep in front of John Gibson and finished off again as mentioned, Thomas’ pass in the second.

There was also a sequence where Neighbours laid out the body with a big shot block up four that looked like it would be an injury when the blast from Axel Sandin-Pellikka caught Neighbours around the right knee area. He was obviously stung by the shot and still managed to finish his shift, limp to the bench and ultimately return.

* Gibson save on Kyrou – Crazy to think at that point the Blues would need a Grade A chance to go in the third period, and they got one from Kyrou, off a great pass from Faulk with 4:40 left in the game, but it was Gibson that came up with two huge stops from in close.

Kyrou and Schenn each had slot chances in the first period that were high-danger scoring chances that went awry, and sure, would the Blues like to have those back? Yes. But again, leading 4-0, it was all about game management and they stopped managing it after about 38 minutes on Saturday.

And as well as Schenn's line looked early, it's tough to fathom he and Kyrou each finished minus-4 in the game.

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