Three Takeaways From Blues’ 4-1 Loss Against Hurricanes

The first period was so good for the St. Louis Blues, one almost got a sense that they even deserved a greater lead than one.

Well, not only did they not lead by one, they were tied, and everything was done in by the last minute of one period and the first minute of the next.

Andrei Svechnikov and Eric Robinson scored twice within a 42-second span, and Martin Necas extended his point streak to 13 games to fuel the Carolina Hurricanes’ come-from-behind 4-1 win against the Blues at Lenovo Center on Sunday.

The Blues (8-10-1) were coming off a 3-2 overtime win at the Boston Bruins on Saturday, while Carolina (13-4-0) is coming off a 4-0 win on home ice against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, but after a terrific start to the game, it turned in a moment’s notice.

Let’s look at the takeaways from this one:

* Great first period derailed by penalty — The Blues were crisp, they were buzzing in the early going.

Carolina, which came in 6-1-0 at home this season, wasn’t expecting St. Louis to come with the fury it did.

The Blues had the game’s first six shots and took a 1-0 lead when Jake Neighbours was the recipient of some solid stick-checking by Justin Faulk, Pavel Buchnevich and then Jordan Kyrou, who fed Neighbours in the slot for the finish at 6:05:

The Blues were relentless, in Carolina’s face. Almost playing the Hurricanes’ game. They kept that going throughout until Oskar Sundqvist took a neutral zone holding penalty on Jackson Blake with 59.2 seconds left.

It took all the momentum and wind out of the Blues’ sails because in a period when they had chances to pad the lead by two, maybe three goals, Carolina tied it just 35 seconds into the power play when Svechnikov redirected a pinpoint Necas pass off the left side of the half wall by Joel Hofer:

So instead of feeling good about the way they played in a tough barn and having a lead, it was 1-1 and time to regroup, something the Blues don’t handle well at times.

They certainly didn’t come out with a purpose to begin the second when Eric Robinson, who had a goal and two assists, put Carolina ahead for good at 2-1 just 17 seconds into the second when he scored from the slot.

Hofer didn’t handle the breakout pass well, missing Ryan Suter off the mark, then kicked out a juicy rebound of Dmitri Orlov’s long-range shot for Robinson to finish.

* Missed opportunities — Now in a familiar position chasing the game, the Blues continued to get chances.

Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich, Dylan Holloway, Brandon Saad, Alexey Toropchenko, all with Grade A scoring opportunities. Some are paid to finish, some are in those positions by sheer hard work.

But as has bee often the case, lack of finish just plagues this team.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 29 saves in the game, but I didn’t feel like the Blues made his life difficult, and the lone power play the Blues got in the game was an unmitigated disaster with no shots on goal, nor any shot attempts.

Another opportunity to tie the game with a man advantage goal and nothing comes from it, not even a sliver of momentum. There’s a reason they’re 29th in the league in power-play efficiency (13.6 percent).

* Martin Necas one-man wrecking crew — Remember when the Hurricanes were taking fliers on Necas in the summer, offering up the 12th pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and we wrote in this space why the Blues should unequivocally should be all-in on the 25-year-old?

Ahh, well. Would have been a nice acquisition of a player to fit right into the mold and fabric of how they’re trying to build here. But if the Blues were able to make that move, depending on what the Hurricanes wanted, would they have bee able to pull off the double offer-sheet moves for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway? We’ll never know and that’s a conversation for another day, but on this day, and in recent weeks, Necas has been torturing the league.

He had two goals and two assists on Sunday, giving him 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in a 13-game point streak. His last game without a point: Oct. 19 in a 4-3 loss against the Blues at Enterprise Center.

Necas scored to make it 3-1 at 12:25 of the second off a lost puck in the offensive zone and a broken play where the puck lay there for a shooter:

He scored off a wicked shot from a face-off set play at 16:47 of the third period to make it 4-1:

The Blues finished the road trip 1-1-1 and return home for two games before hitting the road for three to the New York area prior to Thanksgiving.

Here’s what coach Drew Bannister, Neighbours and Holloway had to say postgame: