ST .LOUIS — It was a familiar theme for the St. Louis Blues Tuesday in their 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Enterprise Center.
The Blues (8-11-1), who are 1-5-1 in their last seven meetings, face a solid opponent. They’re in the game in the third period, on the line, and for one reason or another, they find a way to lose.
And lose to another Central Division opponent (more on that later).
The return of Robert Thomas could not help the Blues once again solve their offensive problems.
Thomas returned earlier than expected after missing the last 12 games with a broken right ankle blocking a shot on October 22, and he contributed one assist on the power play and played 23:07, winning 14 of the 23 plays.
“I felt good,” Thomas said. “The timing was a little off, but he started to feel more comfortable as the match went on.”
“I thought he played really well,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “It didn’t feel like he’d been gone for four weeks.”
Here are tonight’s takeaways:
*Amplified errors — Good teams pounce. Minnesota, which won here 4-1 in the home opener on October 15, took advantage of puck errors and never trailed.
On a goal scored by Ryan Hartman that made the score 1-0 at 12:24, Marco Rossi lifted Dylan Holloway’s stick in the neutral zone; OK, the guy makes a solid play there, he passes it to Hartman, who took a half-step on Colton Parayko, but the shot went through Jordan Binnington, a shot that the Blues goaltender will want to return to:
After Scott Perunovich, who hadn’t scored in his first 78 NHL games, scored his second in six games on a beautiful shot:
He tied the game 1-1 at 4:48 of the second period.
Another game lies in the balance of the third. It did it against Winnipeg, against Montreal, against Philadelphia, against Utah, Boston, Buffalo, Carolina. Everyone was tied, had a lead or were within a point.
The Wild took the lead on Kirill Kaprizov’s goal at 6:07 on a high slot redirection. This happened after Justin Faulk, who had just served a high stick minor, came out of the box, had a chance to clear but gently lobbed it which was caught at the blue line by Matt Boldy:
But the Blues fought back again, tying the score 2-2 on a power play goal from Jake Neighbors at 10:37, a power play that looked clean, timed and worked well:
But once again, a lost puck cost them another lead.
This time it was the “WTF” line after Radek Faksa moved a puck along the wall to Alexey Toropchenko, but he lost the battle, Minnesota got the puck back and passed it to Jonas Brodin, whose shot deflected to Nathan Walker’s short side. on Binnington with 6:16 to play:
Kaprizov, who extended his point streak to six games (six goals, six assists), put it away into an empty net with 1:23 remaining.
“I think it’s pretty close. I feel like this game could have gone either way,” Thomas said. “They’re a team that plays really well. They have a great record and they find ways to win. When you’re kind of on the other side, it’s tough. You feel like you’re in the common sense.”
* Missed opportunities — What looks like a broken record, the Blues generated chances. They had good chances to score.
The neighbors scored but missed a short open team in the second half; Buchnevich missed a close opportunity by not leaving his stick on the ice; Jordan Kyrou, who seemingly had glorious chance after glorious chance every game (10 shot attempts), was tight. These are just a few of many.
And in doing so, the Blues went 0-4-0 – all at home – against their division opponents and outscored 15-7.
“It’s frustrating. I think we’re producing, aren’t we,” Neighbors said. “The looks are there. Again, the story is we’re not done with them. That’s just the way it’s going right now. We just can’t seem to finish.
“I think there are a lot of positives. We’re creating and playing well and we’re in games. We just have to find a way to win.”
* Third periods don’t go well — Good teams find ways to win late, right?
Well, part of the Blues’ recent problems is that they are getting pummeled in the third period.
They have now been outscored in six of the last seven third periods (Saturday at Boston the only exception) and are minus-12, outscored 15-3.
“We have to find ways to win hockey games,” Bannister said. “When we’re in these positions, it’s 2-2, we tie on the power play. We have to take our momentum and move forward here. Right now, with the way the rebounds are going for us, we have to work so that these rebounds go our way.
