It had to be better for the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
A repeat of that dreadful first period Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings couldn't have been in the cards again, right?
Well, it wasn't quite as glaring, but the mistakes were there once again, they were chasing the game after allowing three more goals in a 4-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.
The Blues (30-26-2), who were swept in the season series against the Jets, losing all three by a combined 13-6, have been outscored 7-1 the past two first periods and were chasing the game once again
Winnipeg is one of the stingiest teams in the NHL and that's not a team the Blues could afford to do that against.
Let's jump into the three keys:
1. Mistakes magnified in first period again -- It wasn't as porous as Saturday in Detroit, but the Blues were mistake-prone in the opening 20 minutes and it cost them again.
Even after captain Brayden Schenn got into a heated scrap with fellow captain, Jets forward Adam Lowry, it didn't take long for the Blues to fall behind instead of using that as a motivating factor when their leader leads by example.
Case in point on the first goal, the Jets were able to drive the zone and collect two loose pucks off shot attempts without the Blues getting to one of them, then Sean Monahan was somehow able to get into a soft spot in the slot while defensemen Torey Krug and Justin Faulk, who returned after missing 12 games with an upper-body injury, were both drawn down too deep towards their net, then Faulk made an attempt to block the shot but in essence, screened goalie Joel Hofer on the play, and the Blues were chasing again.
When Brenden Dillon scored from the point, Mark Scheifele won a face-off with Kevin Hayes in the Blues' zone, but as they tried collapsing on the puck, Jake Neighbours and Kasperi Kapanen each obstructed Hofer's view of the shot, and it's 2-0 midway through the first.
Pavel Buchnevich got the Blues back in the game when he scored to make it 2-1 just 40 seconds after Dillon's goal at 10:50, Winnipeg's third goal by Blues killer Kyle Connor was a killer.
With possession, Kapanen, who had another poor game to follow up Saturday's third-period benching in Detroit, instead of getting a puck in deep and going to work, tried making a play to Brandon Saad and the puck was picked off just inside the Jets zone.
The problem was the Blues' D was making a change, and in essence, Connor was off to the races while Colton Parayko and Marco Scandella were trying to get into the play, and nearly did. But Connor's shot from the left circle got through Hofer, a shot I felt he should have saved, made it 3-1.
But it was more preventable mishaps that had the Blues down after 20 once again.
2. Poor puck management -- There's no in between with the Blues when it comes to managing the puck. They're either really good, or they're really bad.
It wasn't egregious Tuesday, but it wasn't good enough.
Pucks weren't on the tape regularly, they were in double digits in defensive zone turnovers again, and against the Jets, they make teams pay for puck management issues.
The Blues missed the net 18 times in the game, which is too many, and that stems from poor puck management and lack of zone time when they miss the net as often as they did.
3. Need to bear down on scoring chances -- The Blues did outshoot the Jets 38-32 for the game, and the volume was there, including a 75-61 Corsi-for advantage.
But they just didn't bear down enough on their prime scoring chances, either missing the net, as mentioned above with the 18 missed shots, or not pouncing on rebounds left by Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit.
Brossoit left a big rebound on Buchnevich's goal in the first and left a number of others, but the Blues just didn't bury the chances they did get against a very stingy side.
