All good things must come to an end at some point.
For the St. Louis Blues, they came crashing down in a 4-1 loss against the shorthanded Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
The Blues (28-22-2), who had their five-game road winning streak end and lost for just the second time in nine games (7-2-0), looked checked out from the beginning, and it's a head-scratcher as to why with the Leafs missing three of their biggest stars in defenseman Morgan Rielly (suspension) and forwards John Tavares and Mitchell Marner (each due to illness).
One would think that would be motivation enough to try and match wits with a lineup lacking star-studded quality it's had throughout the season.
The Blues' fourth line of Alexey Toropchenko, Oskar Sundqvist and Nathan Walker had spurts of energy and produced the lone goal that got the Blues back in it in the second period, and Jordan Binnington did his best to keep what looked like a disinterested group in front of him in it but there simply wasn't enough bite in their game of recent performances to warrant two points on this night.
Let's jump into the three-period takeaways from a forgetful night:
* First Period -- The Leafs were aggressive from the get-go, and players they brought into the lineup that likely wouldn't have played had the aforementioned three been available to play.
The Blues just seemed to be on their heels and fell back into some of the habits that got them in trouble in prior poor starts.
Bobby McCann, who was one of those players to step into the lineup, made it 1-0 at 5:33 on a sequence where Nick Leddy had a chance to clear a puck along the wall and couldn't, then McCann was able to skate off the wall with it and got little resistance from Brayden Schenn, curled to the net and whipped one in tight past Binnington.
It looked like Binnington had a chance to maybe get his stick down and seal off the puck from getting to the crease, but it came off the side netting and may have disrupted the play, while Colton Parayko, instead of challenging the play, stayed in the slot protecting it.
Toronto kept coming and the Blues, who seemed discombobulated, with and without the puck, avoided a quick 2-0 deficit when Tyler Bertuzzi was alone in the slot but pushed his shot wide of the net.
Bertuzzi had another chance at 11:42 but Binnington stopped the Leafs forward on a breakaway.
But the deficit grew to two when William Nylander scored off a fortuitous bounce trying to center a pass off the stick of Matthew Kessel at 16:25 to make it 2-0.
The Blues had possession of the puck in the offensive zone, but Jordan Kyrou turned it over that led to a sequence of Nylander trying to center a puck that hit Kessel and skirted past Binnington on the short side.
Auston Matthews, who had a quiet night that didn't really matter, nearly added to his NHL-leading 42 goals but he also fired a shot high and wide with 1:44 remaining in the period, and the Blues got out of it down 2-0 and outshot 10-3.
* Second Period -- There were no penalties in that first period, but Toropchenko's forecheck created a power play for the Blues when he was interfered with by Max Domi at 3:08, and the red-hot Blues power play had an early opportunity.
However, the best chance came from the Leafs when Noah Gregor was stopped by Binnington on a shorthanded breakaway at 3:52.
The power play fizzled, but Toropchenko and his linemates didn't and they got the Blues right back in the game when Toropchenko was able to tip home Walker's wrister from the right circle at 5:36 to make it 2-1.
The Blues were able to move a puck up the ice, cycle it below the goal line, retrieve it and Kessel, who earned his first NHL point, got the puck to Walker, who used Toropchenko's screen to try and get a shot off, but Toropchenko was able to redirect it past Ilya Samsonov.
It provided a bit of life for the Blues, and Brandon Saad nearly tied it but his close-range backhand was gloved by Samsonov at 7:50.
Another glorious chance to knot the game back up came after Matthew Knies was called for hooking at 10:50, but the Blues' power play, which had been on a heater as of late because of directness with the puck, was anything but direct and another chance fizzled; they had one shot on two power-play opportunities in the game.
Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist created a turnover and ensuing 2-on-1with Sundqvist with the puck, but he waited too long to try and make a play around a sliding Mark Giordano and nothing came of it.
Toronto got its first chance on the power play when Parayko was whistled for slashing with 1:56 remaining, but the Blues got to the end of the period only down 2-1 after Binnington sprawled and made a great glove save on Domi in tight with 1:19 remaining.
The Blues entered the third being outshot 18-11.
* Third Period -- The Blues haven't seemed to mind being in these situations in the recent past, playing in a one-shot game, but there just wasn't any pushback.
There was an early 2-on-1 again in which Schenn and Jake Neighbours had an opportunity, but once again, no shooting mentality and no decisive play as Schenn had a puck roll off his stick and waited too long to try and get a puck around a sliding defenseman, and once again, no shot off an odd-man rush.
Sammy Blais took a careless tripping minor at 4:59 in the offensive zone to put the Blues' PK back on the ice, but it got the job done.
The slow dagger came when McMann spun and scored from a sharp angle in the left circle to make it 3-1 at 8:02.
Binnington seemed to leave himself vulnerable on the play by over-extending himself and going down early and leaving the area over his left shoulder exposed, and that's where McMann was able to whip the wrist shot into that far, top corner, after Binnington initially had a puck on his stick but nobody to give it to or move it out of the zone, so it stayed in the Blues' zone and eventually, in the net.
Binnington was able to make another strong save, this time on Nick Robertson at 13:55 in the slot area to keep it a 3-1 game.
There was just little to nothing in the way of offense, even with Binnington pulled and McMann, who came in with two goals, scored into the empty net when he banked in an empty-netter with 1:39 left to seal his first NHL hat trick and seal Toronto's 4-1 win.
The Blues were outshot 32-15 in the game, their lowest output of the season.
