Another St. Louis Blues game that comes down to the wire, or where one shot wins a game. Seems to be common in this first third of the season. The Blues were playing the second of a back-to-back against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday. Offense continues to struggle; power play was better, had chance to make difference again; net front presence was better Coming off a 3-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, what would the Blues have in the tank? Well, plenty. Another game of missed opportunities that came down to the end, and Aleksander Barkov's power-play goal with 17 seconds left in overtime gave the Panthers a 2-1 win, sending the Blues (15-16-4) to their third straight loss (0-2-1). It was another solid team performance but one that again goes by the wayside without two points the Blues fought hard to get but come up short. Oskar Sundqvist scored the lone goal and Joel Hofer made 25 saves to end his four-game winning streak. The team welcomed back forward Radek Faksa, who missed five games with a lower-body injury, and Philip Broberg returned after missing Thursday due to illness. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/game-day/12-20-24-st-louis-blues-florida-panthers-gameday-lineup] Let's get into the Three Takeaways from the game: * Offensive woes continue -- We can copy and paste Thursday night's analysis. Great scoring chances, no goals. The Blues outshot the Lightning 32-18 on Thursday and had ample scoring chances but couldn't solve Andrei Vasilevskiy. Insert same analysis, switch the goalie. This time, it was another Russian: Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 26 saves. The Blues had a 3-on-1 and a 2-on-1 in the first five minutes of the game they couldn't score on. Zack Bolduc tried to sauce a pass to Scott Perunovich that was off the mark instead of shooing on the 3-on-1, and Jake Neighbours was stopped on the 2-on-1, electing to keep. He had another 2-on-1 in the third period with Robert Thomas that he was also stopped on. Dylan Holloway had two terrific chances in overtime that 'Bob' made saves on as well. Those were among some of the top chances in the game, but for the fourth time in five games and 10th time in 35, the Blues can't score but one goal in a game, asking a lot from their goalies to steal points in those instances. But in the past week, Hofer and Jordan Binnington helped get a point in matching 2-1 OT losses. * Power play had chance to give Blues lead twice -- OK, it looked better on Friday with six shots on goal, and a couple terrific looks by Jordan Kyrou, particularly one in which he got a great seam pass from Pavel Buchnevich that was saved, but the bottom line is it's now 0-for-10 the past six games, and on Friday, twice, it had the opportunity to give the Blues a lead in a 1-1 game and didn't. The Blues did move Cam Fowler, who had himself a Grade A look in the second period at his first Blues goal. At some point, things will begin to click but at present time, it's no producing. * Blues were better around the net -- One area coach Jim Montgomery said had to improve was net front presence and it was obviously much improved on Friday despite only producing a goal. That's where Sundqvist scored his first goal since Nov. 12 (15 games), and it was generated by a strong push by Alexandre Texier through the neutral zone, Bolduc getting a puck in deep where Texier didn't stop skating, hunted the puck down and made a crafty little backhand pass to Sundqvist crashing towards the low slot and he was able to shovel a backhand in at 10:01 of the first period: * As a side note, the call (or lack thereof) on the Sam Bennett hit from behind on Neighbours with 1:41 remaining was grossly missed by referees Ghislain Hebert and Furman South, along with linesmen Derek Nansen and CJ Murray. This is checking from behind in any league and should have given the Blues a power play to end the game or have an abbreviated 4-on-3 in OT. And unfortunately, it wasn't much, but the tripping penalty on Schenn was the right call and it cost the Blues a chance at a point in a shootout. Hear from Montgomery and players following the game: Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjA5MjcwNjk1MDQ0MDY0NDYy/subscribe2024-front-banner.jpg]
