Three Takeaways from Blues’ 3-1 Loss to Lightning

Those who may not have seen the game and looked at the score sheet without seeing the score may think that St. Louis Blues won the hockey game on Thursday.

It was similar to many of their defeats this season where they created good scoring opportunities, but were unable to finish.

The Blues beat the red hot Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday but fell victim again when they lost 3-1 at Amalie Arena.

Pavel Buchnevich scored one goal, but Jordan Binington was pulled after allowing three goals — the fifth in his six starts — on just 11 shots early in the second period and was replaced by Joel Hofer.

The Blues (15-16-3) dropped a game below .500 with their third loss in four games, and in each game they scored just one goal. It is the ninth time this season they have scored one goal in one game.

Let’s look at the Three Takeaways of the game:

*Not getting second points — How is it right for the Blues, if the name doesn’t say Kyrou, Buchnevich or Thomas, they don’t score goals.

Jordan Kyrou (four goals), Buchnevich (two) and Robert Thomas (one) have each accounted for the last seven goals in the Blues’ back-to-back four-match winless streak.

Buchnevich scored a nice goal on some solid work by Mathieu Joseph, Zack Bolduc and Alexandre Texier, a line that created a solid offense:

But it was another example of the Blues not getting second points.

The fountain ran dry for Dylan Holloway, who snapped a seven-point streak with the game-winning goal in overtime Dec. 10 against the Vancouver Canucks but since then, he is scoreless and minus-6 in five games; Jake Neighbors has two goals in the last nine games; Brayden Schenn has one goal in 11 games and none in the past four, and is one goal 5-on-5 all season; Bolduc has two goals in the past nine games since his first NHL multi-goal game in head coach Jim Montgomery’s Nov. 25 with the New York Rangers; Brandon Saad is scoreless in his last 16 games and has scored just two points in 30 games; Joseph is scoreless in his last 16 games and has one assist in that stretch; Oskar Sundqvist, who was healthy Thursday, is scoreless in 14 games; Alexandre Texier has one goal in 16 games this season and none in the last 13; Alexey Toropchenko has one goal in 32 games this season but none in the last 21 games; Nathan Walker has no goals (or points) in his last 12 games, while Radek Faksa, who has missed the last five games with a groin injury, has just two goals in 29 games, none in his last 11 games.

Even the defenders don’t contribute; they are 25th in the league with just 11 goals, and Colton Parayko has five of them. They are also 20th in the league in points defense with 56.

If the Blues don’t start getting help from the bottom of the lineup or from their d-men on offense, it’s going to be a long year.

* Tucker, Perunovich struggled — Tyler Tucker made his season debut when he was called up to Springfield of the American Hockey League on Thursday and played while Philip Broberg was out with an illness.

It didn’t go well.

On Tampa’s first goal by Anthony Cirelli, Tucker and Scott Perunovich didn’t connect in the zone, and both d-men were on the same side of the ice when Cirelli snuck in behind Buchnevich and was alone in Binnington:

Each was on the ice when Gage Goncalves scored his first NHL goal in the second, and it was Perunovich with a soft screen fly that finally chased down Binnington to make it 3-1 1:18 after Buchnevich scored:

Each id-man was minus-2, and Perunovich played just 12:31 and Tucker played less (8:27).

* The power play does nothing — Once again, the Blues’ power play had a chance to make the difference in the game, either give them the lead, or in this case, tie the game, and they didn’t do much.

They are 0 for 8 over the past five games, including 0-for-2 Thursday on three shots. Down 1-0 in the first half, Jake Guentzel was in the box for hooking and failing again to fall 27h in the league (16.0 percent).

Hear from Montgomery, Thomas and Schenn postgame: