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

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Robert Thomas (middle) extended his point streak to 11 games with an assist, but the St. Louis Blues fell to Vince Dunn (right) and the Seattle Kraken, 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday. (Steven Bisig-Imagn Images)

A point is nice, but from a selfish standpoint, the St. Louis Blues needed another.

The Blues turned up empty on their season-ending three-game road trip, falling to the Seattle Kraken, 4-3 in a shootout, on Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena.

So that makes three straight losses (0-2-1) after a franchise-record 12-game winning streak by the Blues (43-30-8), who lost ground to the Minnesota Wild, who rallied from a 2-0 third-period deficit to down the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in overtime on Saturday.

So as it stands going into Sunday, the Wild have 95 points, the Blues have 94 and each have one game remaining; the Calgary Flames have 90 points and have three games remaining it stands as this for the Blues:

* They can clinch if the Flames lose in regulation against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

* They clinch with a regulation win in their season finale against Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday.

The Flames can technically catch the Blues in points. The two teams can max out at 96 points, but if the Flames win all three of their remaining games in regulation, and the Blues win against Utah in overtime or a shootout, the Flames would own the first tiebreaker and that’s regulation wins (32-31) and thus would eliminate the Blues.

Any Flames loss in regulation would eliminate the Flames altogether, because they could tie the Blues in regulation wins (RW, 31-31), but the Blues own the next tiebreaker, which is regulation or overtime wins (ROW) 39-34.

Sound complicated enough? We will break it all down as each day passes.

As for Saturday, it was the return of Colton Parayko for the Blues. The defenseman missed the past 17 games (the Blues were 13-3-1) with a left knee injury suffered March 5 against the Los Angeles Kings. He would score in his return and play 23:21 and was a plus-1 with two shots on goal, two hits and five blocks.

Nick Leddy had a goal and an assist, and Radek Faksa scored for the Blues, while Jordan Binnington made 14 saves.

The Blues lost the shootout in seven rounds when Chandler Stephenson scored, and Jimmy Snuggerud was denied to end it.

Let’s go into Saturday’s Three Takeaways:

* Five chances in a shootout to get extra point – The Blues need points, and even a shootout point would have been massive.

They had five chances – five – to end the game in a shootout after Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas opened with shootout goals off Philipp Grubauer.

It was 2-1 in the third round, but Binnington couldn’t make the save on Kappo Kakko, but then Brayden Schenn had a chance to win it but hit the post.

And when Binnington made saves on Matt Beniers, Shane Wright and Jared McCann, the Blues had the puck on their stick three times to win, and Zack Bolduc, Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou each failed to produce the winner.

And when Stephenson beat Binnington, who was 4-for-7 on his shootout attempts, Snuggerud pulled the puck back to his backhand and not sure if Grubauer got a stick on his attempt or not, but the puck sailed over the net to end it on his first NHL shootout attempt.

It ended the trip with one point, and at least a point was lost when the Blues fell to the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3, on Wednesday giving up a late third-period goal to lose that one.

* Unable to hold lead in third period after fighting back – The Blues entered the third period down a goal, thanks to old friend Jaden Schwartz’s fortuitous bounce that gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 3:44 of the second period and needed a comeback.

They started it and it was Radek Faksa who tied it 1-1 at 1:06 on an effort play and forecheck, keeping a puck alive at the blue line before getting it to the net and finish by banking it in off a flailing Grubauer.

But Seattle would retake the lead 2-1 when Mikey Eyssimont scored at 6:44 after a Tyler Tucker turnover making a pass from his zone into the neutral zone that was picked off.

But the Blues would strike twice in 13 seconds when Parayko tied it 2-2 at 7:21 off a little 2-on-1 with Robert Thomas, who extended his point streak to 11 games (four goals, 19 assists) when the Blues caught Seattle with a couple forwards back behind the Blues’ goal line.

Then Leddy made it 3-2 at 7:34 after a pressure forecheck, winning a puck back, Bolduc finding Leddy and his shot from the high slot into the top shelf.

That makes it 46 goals by Blues D-men, which is second behind the Colorado Avalanche, who have 52.

That’s when the Blues needed to buckle down and take away ice and again allowed the tying goal, this time to Wright, after Jamie Oleksiak walked past Ryan Suter before sliding the puck into the bottom of the slot and the puck caromed in off Wright’s skate while being contested by Alexey Toropchenko to tie the game 3-3 at 9:53.

The Blues had been so good at shutting down things in the third period, but in the past three games have allowed, that’s six goals allowed on this trip (including one empty-netter) in three third periods.

* Played slow, sluggish early – For the second time in three games on this trip, the Blues started slow and looked uninspired.

Their three first-period shots and minimal O-zone time marked three straight games with fewer than 10 shots in the opening period and just 14 total, including three at Winnipeg and three tonight.

We keep going back to having to play without Dylan Holloway, who remains out week to week with a lower-body injury, but his absence has affected the play of all the lines.

It’s hardly the kind of play you want to see while desperately trying to lock down a wild card berth and forced them to play from behind twice in this game before they got things going in the right direction in the third.

* Hear what coach Jim Montgomery, Parayko and Leddy had to say postgame:

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