Three Takeaways From Blues’ 3-2 Loss Against Panthers

ST. LOUIS – That was a gut punch.

And it came from another powerhouse in the NHL, this time the Florida Panthers.

And even worse, it was a dagger blow from St. Louis’ own, Matthew Tkachuk.

Tkachuk had a part in all three Florida goals, including getting the tip of Sam Reinhart’s slot shot with 11.8 seconds remaining in regulation to send the Panthers to a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Aleksander Barkov controlled the puck off the wall and was able to feed Reinhart a pass in the slot past Jordan Kyrou, and after Reinhart’s initial shot was blocked by Colton Parayko, the puck came back to Reinhart and his second attempt found Tkachuk, who was stationed to Joel Hofer’s right and he was able to tip it home.

“We were in the right spots defensively,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The first shot, hit the guy right in front of him. I would like Reinhart to be hit after that, but we turned and looked for the puck and he found it and made us pay.

“It’s easy for me to say in the heat of the heat of the moment, but you always want to get skin on the guy that’s shooting the puck so that he can’t get another opportunity, rebound, usually at the net. That’s what I saw on that play.”

Tkachuk finished with two goals and an assist, extending his goal- and point streak to five games, offsetting the night the Blues (24-26-5) were in another tight game, like Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss against the Edmonton Oilers, but fall short.

Zack Bolduc and Oskar Sundqvist scored, and Hofer made 31 saves in a terrific performance.

Let’s go into Thursday’s Three Takeaways:

* That was a gut punch – Just when it looked like the Blues were going to overtime for the second straight game, against the second of two straight Stanley Cup finalists from a year ago, their hearts were ripped out.

When Tkachuk was able to get a piece of Reinhart’s second effort from the slot and tip it under the right arm of Hofer, it shocked the Enterprise Center crowd and the Blues.

They had put in a solid enough effort to at least earn a point, only to come away with nothing against the defending Cup champs:

“You’ve got to get a point out of it,” Montgomery said. “That’s a team that’s won the Stanley Cup, went to the Stanley Cup finals. They know who they are, they know how they want to play. Pucks go to the goal line, they get in on the forecheck, they get heavy, and it’s just relentless, over and over and over. They’re really good at it. We have to establish that kind of regularity with our identity.”

In the end of two tough games, the Blues (24-26-5), who are 1-5-1 their past seven games, come away with one point out of four.

“It sucks, obviously,” Sundqvist said. “Eleven seconds left. I think we played a good game overall, especially second period. I feel like we should have come out of that period with one or two goals up. But that’s hockey. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t.

“… At the same time, we’re playing two of the best teams in the league. I think we’re playing two good hockey games against them. If we come out of that second period with a goal or two up, it can be a whole different game. We take with us that we are playing two really good hockey teams and we’re right there. We just need that last percent there to tip it over to wins.”

* Bottom line, another power team’s star players outperformed the Blues’ top players – We saw when the chips were on the line, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl took things over for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

On Thursday, it was Tkachuk, Barkov, Reinhart for the Panthers.

They combined for six points, including combining on the game-winner at the end.

Each had a hand in how it developed.

Barkov won the wall battle with Robert Thomas, handled the puck, then was able to put it through Jordan Kyrou and onto Reinhart’s stick. Reinhart didn’t give up on the play when Colton Parayko and Cam Fowler double-deflected the initial shot; he stayed with it to get another attempt, and what can you say about Tkachuk, at the net again, stick out and gets a piece of it.

Sounds simple enough, but star players can do the little things to account for big results.

Meanwhile, Thomas had an assist on Sundqvist’s power-play goal, but Kyrou and Buchnevich were held without a point and the three were a combined minus-4 after Montgomery put the line together after starting Dylan Holloway with Thomas and Buchnevich.

* Starting slow – Just like Tuesday when Edmonton was all over the Blues early and they were held in it by Jordan Binnington, Hofer, who made 31 saves, held the Blues in it in the first period when the Panthers took a 2-1 lead.

The Blues were giving pucks away, the Panthers were relentless on the forecheck, playing fast, skating and going goal line to goal line without much resistance despite Bolduc giving the Blues a 1-0 lead 3:31 into the game on a backhand rebound of Ryan Suter’s shot:

“I thought that we started to manage the puck better,” Montgomery said. “We had a lot of turnovers in the first, and (then) I thought we were physical.

“’Hof’ did a good job all game because they go hard to the net so there’s a lot of traffic and deflections, like the Tkachuk goal on the power play. I thought it went right in. Just waves his stick out there and he tips it in the net. (He’s) a talent.”

Hofer’s gem save was kicking out the right toe on A.J. Greer in the first period:

“I was just trying to do my job,” Hofer said. “Whether we get a lot of shots or not, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t win.”

The Blues waded into the game in the second, got their legs underneath them, started to play physical, including a heavy check by Alexey Toropchenko on Aaron Ekblad that nearly resulted in a goal.

And then they were rewarded with Sundqvist’s tying goal at 5:18 of the second to tie the game 2-2:

“I think we just played fast,” Sundqvist said. “We got pucks in, we talked about winning red lines and goal lines against these guys, getting on our forechecking, getting the puck back. I think we did that really good in the second especially. We take that with us.”

And the Sundqvist, Bolduc, Mathieu Joseph line seemed to drive the bus.

“We were playing fast and Sunny’s winning draws, getting around the net and winning battles,” Bolduc said. “Matty Jo’s just skating, playing fast. It makes the game so much easier.”

“I think we played good,” Sundqvist said. “Obviously ‘MoJo’ and ‘Boldy,’ two quick guys and skilled guys. They bring the speed. I think both of them played really well, with even the little things, getting pucks out and supporting each other. I think they played very well.”

Unfortunately for the Blues, the end result was not well enough.