St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas (18) scored twice and added an assist, but it wasn't enough in a 4-3 shootout loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday at Enterprise Center. (Connor Hamilton-Imagn Images)

ST. LOUIS – It’s tough to say this late in the season that the end result doesn’t matter. But that’s just what a 4-3 shootout loss against the Winnipeg Jets brought out on Saturday night at Enterprise Center for the St. Louis Blues.

For the Blues (25-26-6), their playoff plight hangs by a thread, a very thin thread, so at this point, it’s basically a building foundation, especially from here until the March 7 trade deadline.

Who wants to really stay, who wants to go? These are the games in which will say a lot to the coaching staff and management team how the Blues want to go about with their current and future plans.

Robert Thomas scored twice and had an assist to extend his point streak to five games; Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists, and Joel Hofer made 25 saves but couldn’t come up with the one that mattered in the shootout when Kyle Connor scored in the second round to account for the only scoring and give the Jets (40-14-3) their ninth straight win.

“It was frustrating,” Thomas said. “Going up against one of the best teams in the League and making a statement coming out of the break, we had a chance, multiple chances even in overtime to close it out. Got to look at the positives. We got two great teams tonight and tomorrow night [Colorado Avalanche, 5 p.m.]. We needed to come out with a good start and something to build on tonight.”

Let’s look at Saturday’s Three Takeaways:

* Thomas, Buchnevich play best games in a while – It’s been no secret that the line with Brayden Schenn, Dylan Holloway and Jordan Kyrou has been the Blues’ most consistent as a whole.

Thomas and Buchnevich have had their moments, mostly earlier in the season, but for large swaths of late, it just hasn’t been good enough from top line players.

Saturday looked more like the kind of players the Blues are going to need if they are going to invest in these players.

With Jake Neighbours, it was a menacing line more than just the scoring.

And it stems from a reset coming back from the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“We went into the break not happy with the way we were playing,” Thomas said. “I wanted to make a point to play better and get better in different areas. It’s a start. We’ve got a long way to go. Just got to kind of keep on going from there.

“I think we were supporting each other. We were forechecking well, able to get pucks quick and transition them. We did some good things to continue to build on.”

Buchnevich added, “We have a couple good days of practice. We work on some things on forecheck. Our line play pretty good today. Got a good forecheck going, got some O-zone time, we got some chances. (But) we’ve got to close the game at 3-2, got to learn from that, keep going and keep building.”

The Blues started practicing for the resumption of their schedule on Tuesday, and coach Jim Montgomery saw the kind of results and effort levels needed for that trio to be effective.

“I thought they had a good week of practice, that line,” Montgomery said. “They practiced really hard all three days. They were invested in practice and they were rewarded with how well they played tonight.”

Thomas got the Blues going when they trailed 1-0 with Buchnevich doing the heavy lifting, forechecking a Jet off the puck, then taking a hit to allow the release of the puck for Thomas to spring a 2-on-1 with Neighbours before Thomas wired a shot bar-in:

On Thomas’ second goal to tie the game 2-2 just 16 seconds into the third period when the Blues pushed, Buchnevich again found the space, nudged the puck into an area where Thomas could corral it, and wrap it on the backhand:

“’Buchy’ made a great play poking it over to space,” said Thomas, who also won 15 of 19 face-offs. “As I kind of picked it up, I looked to the front and saw he was late coming over. I tried to just beat him to the post and I think it hit his other leg as he was stretched out and went in. Sometimes you get a nice bounce like that.

“He was great. Closing out plays, he carried the puck through the neutral zone a lot. Even in the O-zone, he was holding onto it, making good slip plays, possessing it. You felt like he had his confidence back and you could see it in his puck plays and the way he held onto it.”

And when Buchnevich scored a power-play goal at 17:10 to give the Blues a 3-2 lead, it was a stroke of confidence needed by the veteran winger.

“Everybody keep saying I need to shoot more,” Buchnevich said. “I just kind of closed eyes and shoot it, hit the spot. Usually I just looking for next play, pass it. Basically nothing happened. Talking to coaches and stuff, they told me just to shoot puck and it will go in.”

Montgomery added, “The last goal, ‘Buchy’ faking that, he did it in the first too, that’s the ‘Buchy’ that is being creative and playing on his natural instincts. I thought ‘Tommer’ was dominant 200-foot of the ice tonight.”

* Got to close a game out – It may not seem as bad as the numbers indicate (nine), but when the Blues do allow a 6-on-5 goal, it’s usually one that stings or costs them an extra point.

Not only was Buchnevich’s goal the power-play marker that put them ahead late in the game, but they had a chance to cement the outcome had they scored on the second power-play when Neal Pionk was called for two separate holding minors in the same sequence at 15:32.

They weren’t able to convert the insurance tally, and when Winnipeg pulled Eric Comrie for the extra attacker, the Jets were able to retrieve a puck, work it off the wall to the point where Connor was able to throw a puck towards the high slot and Gabriel Vilardi tipped it home with 28 seconds remaining to tie the game 3-3, and the Blues then lost it in the shootout:

“You get a big goal on the power-play, you’ve got to close it out,” Montgomery said. “It’s frustrating. We got a point. We were behind going into the third. There’s a lot of positives to build out of this game, so I don’t to dwell on the negative that we didn’t close it out.

“But the breakdown was we didn’t get in the shot lane going out at the point. We’ve got to force that puck to go down to the wall and obviously there was a shot lane and a guy that tipped it. That high tip is going to be available off a low to high if we don’t get in the shot lane.”

Radek Faksa was playing far off the point player that got the puck and wasn’t able to get in the shooting lane in time.

“It’s too many games like that,” Buchnevich said. “We have a couple games with one-goal lead and we slip a little bit. We’ve got to learn how to close those games and get two points there.”

* Jets are best team in NHL because of their commitment to forechecking – The Blues knew they were going to have to have a commitment to check to have success in this game, and they did.

But Winnipeg, when the Jets are on it, they are a hard nut to crack. They get you bogged down with those big bodies they have and overwhelm you.

The Blues handled the forecheck well at times and at times, well, it was a challenge.

“When you come out of a long stretch like this, you want to get better every period,” Montgomery said. “Third period being our best period is a good sign. We had four 2-on-1’s. I know we gave up two as well in the overtime. I would have liked us to put it away. We had great looks as well.

“The forecheck, what we were trying to improve upon, when we’re committed to playing to the goal line when we didn’t have time and space and couldn’t gain the blue line offensively, it was good. We just weren’t making the right decisions enough and that comes from the long layoff. You’re not used to going through bodies. Those are the things you lose is not being physical. I thought we were physical and managing the puck. I thought the puck management level wasn’t at the level it needs to be, but I don’t think theirs was either.”

Three Takeaways From Blues' 4-3 Shootout Loss Against Jets