The St. Louis Blues season came to an end on Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets in large part to allowing two 5-on-6 goals in a 4-3 double-overtime loss. (James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/40730454-0523-4f2e-99e2-1be4aceab874.jpeg] The St. Louis Blues season came to an end on Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets in large part to allowing two 5-on-6 goals in a 4-3 double-overtime loss. (James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS -- When the puck deflected off the stick of Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg] forward Cole Perfetti into the upper half of the net with 2.2 seconds remaining in regulation to stun the St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round to tie the score 3-3, a game in which the Jets would win in double overtime, 4-3, it signified a painful reminder of an ail that haunted the Blues all season long. Only this time, it ultimately cost them their terrific run at upending the Presidents' Trophy winners and their season. Unfortunately for the Blues, they were no strangers to the goals against when the opposition pulled the goalie. They allowed a league-high 13 in the regular season and two on Sunday. It marked the third time this season in which the Blues allowed multiple goals in a game when the opposition pulled the goalie, the others being Jan. 20 in a 5-4 shootout win against the Vegas Golden Knights [http://thn.com/vegas] and April 5 in a 5-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche [http://thn.com/colorado]. They were the only team in the NHL to allow more goals-against with the goalie pulled than they scored empty-net goals (13-11). And that's why they were sitting at a podium discussing the end of their season rather than prepping for a second-round series against the Dallas Stars [http://thn.com/dallas]. "Yeah, yeah, it's a tough feeling around the room right now," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "That's just the reality of it. When you're that close to advancing and playing another day, the reality of where we are today, it's not a good feeling. That's sports and sometimes you're on the wrong side of it and that night we were." Despite the surge the Blues took from the 4 Nations Face-Off post-schedule to their run to the Stanley Cup playoffs and qualifying on the final day of the regular season for them, the stinging feeling in blowing a 3-1 lead with less than two minutes remaining was the leftover residue that was hard to shake on Tuesday and will take time to shed moving forward. All they needed was one extra play in that last two minutes and it's a different story, but now that the bear in the room regarding 5-on-6 grew even larger, it has to be a point of emphasis for the coaching staff to make a marked improvement in this area, even though they were 10-0-3 in those games, meaning they only lost three points, which isn't as bad as it sounds. "It does sting. It hurts more today than it did two days ago, to be honest," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said on Tuesday. "But we will use it to grow. I'll make sure that we're better in pulled-goalie situations. That's my job. I'm going to make sure the plan is better, I'll study the teams that were the best at it (Winnipeg was No. 1 with one goal allowed, followed by the Edmonton Oilers [http://thn.com/edmonton], Tampa Bay Lightning [http://thn.com/tampabay], Montreal Canadiens [http://thn.com/montreal] and New York Rangers [http://thn.com/rangers] at two) and see what they do that is similar to our D-zone coverage so we can do it easily." Blues general manager Doug Armstrong wasn't going to offer a knee-jerk reaction to one painful segment of what amounted to a season-ending game, but does realize it's something that needs to be alleviated if the Blues are going to ascend even higher. "My job is to look at things from 30,000 feet, not one game, one shift, one two-minute segment," Armstrong said. "That's all I can think about right now is one two-minute segment, but I do have to look at the year in its totality. "... We ended up extremely disappointed in how that ended. The way this ended bothered me a little bit because it was a pattern of how games ended for us. It's not a pattern that we want to continue and if we're here next December and we're talking about the same issue, I'll have to go back to the old quote machine and bring back the killer instinct quote that my wife hates [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJvmNQjYv5c]. But we have to find that back in us again. We have to be able to close out games. We've done the research on where we fit in the league 5-on-6, last in the league, only team in the league 5-on-6 that had a negative goal-for differential. Those are small things that make a huge difference." And on the flip side, the Blues scored just seven goals when they pulled the goalie and made it 6-on-5 (two while on a power play at 6-on-4) and allowed 12 into an empty net. So just a small percentage of each of these stats and we could be talking about a third-place or possibly a second-place finish in the Central Division instead of being a wild card and another opponent. But such is life and now they have an idea of one of the parts to the game that needs to change in a big way for 2025-26. > Blues goals-against 5-on-6 (13): * Nov. 21 vs. San Jose Sharks [http://thn.com/sanjose] -- Alexander Wennberg, 19:51; led 2-1, won 3-2 in a shootout * Dec. 3 at Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg] -- Mark Scheifele, 15:45; led 3-0, won 4-1 * Dec. 10 at Vancouver Canucks [http://thn.com/vancouver] -- Jake DeBrusk, 18:08; led 3-2, won 4-3 in overtime * Jan. 20 at Vegas Golden Knights [http://thn.com/vegas] -- Jack Eichel, 16:50; led 4-2, won 5-4 in a shootout * Jan. 20 at Golden Knights -- Pavel Dorofeyev, 19:30; led 4-3, won 5-4 in a shootout * Dec. 4 vs. Edmonton Oilers [http://thn.com/edmonton] -- Leon Draisaitl, 17:46; led 2-1, lost 3-2 in overtime * Feb. 22 vs. Jets -- Gabriel Vilardi, 19:32; led 3-2, lost 4-3 in a shootout * March 7 at Anaheim Ducks [http://thn.com/anaheim] -- Alex Killorn, 19:17; led 4-2, won 4-3 * March 20 vs. Canucks -- Brock Boeser, 19:56; led 3-2, won 4-3 in overtime * April 3 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins [http://thn.com/pittsburgh] -- Rutger McGroarty, 19:35; led 4-3, won 5-4 in overtime * April 5 vs. Colorado Avalanche [http://thn.com/colorado] -- Nathan MacKinnon, 17:42; led 4-2, won 5-4 * April 5 vs. Avalanche -- Sam Malinski, 19:51; led 5-3, won 5-4 * April 9 at Oilers -- Viktor Arvidsson, 1:41 of third period (came on delayed penalty); tied 2-2, lost 4-3 > Blues empty-net goals-for 5-on-6 (11): * Oct. 24 at Toronto Maple Leafs [http://thn.com/toronto] -- Dylan Holloway, 16:42; led 3-1, won 4-1 * Nov. 2 vs. Maple Leafs -- Pavel Buchnevich, 19:21; led 3-2, won 4-2 * Nov. 25 at New York Rangers [http://thn.com/rangers] -- Buchnevich, 17:15; led 4-2, won 5-2 * Dec. 3 at Jets -- Robert Thomas, 16:21; led 3-1, won 4-1 * Dec. 23 at Detroit Red Wings [http://thn.com/detroit] -- Holloway, 15:54; led 3-0, won 4-0 * Dec. 27 vs. Nashville Predators [http://thn.com/nashville] -- Colton Parayko, 18:45; led 6-4, won 7-4 * Jan. 16 vs. Calgary Flames [http://thn.com/calgary] -- Brayden Schenn, 17:39; led 3-1, won 4-1 * Dec. 27 at Washington Capitals [http://thn.com/washington] -- Jake Neighbours, 18:05; led 4-2, won 5-2 * March 15 at Minnesota Wild [http://thn.com/minnesota] -- Jordan Kyrou, 17:40; led 4-1, won 5-1 * March 23 vs. Predators -- Schenn, 19:22; led 3-1, won 4-1 * April 5 vs. Avalanche -- Thomas, 19:29; led 4-3, won 5-4
