That could have been a very nice road trip for the Blues. They could have banked six of a possible eight points while still finding their game.
Instead, they blew a 2-0 third-period lead on Long Island Monday afternoon and fell to the New York Islanders 3-2 in overtime. Cue the sad horn sound.
The Blues did collect the loser point, allowing them to finish the trip 2-1-1 before heading to Washington D.C. for their White House visit.
But that's small consolation to a team that knows the victory was there for them to finish. They just gave away a point, something you can't do in the Central Division.
The Blues did muster a strong second period, pinning in the Islanders in their own zone for extended stretches. They built a 10-3 shots advantage in the period and sustained enough pressure to change players behind that pressure.
But then the third period got away from them. The Islanders started well and closed it with a flurry to tie the game with 27 seconds left and force overtime.
The Islanders carried the play in the extra time, too, and won when Devon Toews buried a nice centering pass from Mathew Barzal.
Here were some things to like from this game:
_ Vladimir Tarasenko drove the net to create Brayden Schenn's first-period goal. The Islanders ended up deflecting Schenn's pass to the crease into the net themselves. So Schenn has scored in five consecutive games while rewarding the Blues for his contract extension.
_ Tarasenko tried a one-time slap shot on the power play. Seriously, that happened. That shot didn't go in, but he buried a snap shot moments later for his first goal of the season. This was a nice bounce-back after No. 91 failed to put a shot on goal in Montreal. Also, maybe the Blues will keep Tarasenko on the right side of the ice with the man advantage.
_ The Vince Dunn/Justin Faulk pairing can cause lots of havoc on its offensive zone starts. Faulk assisted on Schenn's goal and pumped a couple of shots on goal himself.
_ By playing Dunn and Faulk together, Alex Pietrangelo stayed on his natural right side with Carl Gunnarsson on the left at even strength That is also a good thing. The Blues also balanced out their defense minutes _ everybody played between 17:17 (Gunnarsson) and 21:24 (Colton Parayko).
_ Alexander Steen made his presence felt on the third line. He played a dogged game after moving up to take Zach Sanford's spot with Tyler Bozak and Robby Fabbri with Robby Thomas still sidelined. Not surprisingly, coach Craig Berube also reunited Steen with Oskar Sundqvist and Ivan Barbashev on a shutdown line while truing to protect the lead.
And here were some concerns in this defeat:
_ The Blues almost allowed their third shorthanded goal of this young season. Goaltender Jordan Binnington had to rob Cal Clutterbuck on his walk-in in the third period. The Blues' power-play has shown some promise, but allowing shorties negates that progress.
_ Normally reliable forward Jaden Schwartz helped fuel the Islanders rally with a third-period giveaway in his own zone. Manage the puck!
_ Once again the Blues allowed a team to score after pulling its goaltender. Once again they went into a shell and missed chances to clear the puck _ most notably by Parayko before the game-tying goal.
_ The bottom line is the Blues are 3-1-2 with points in five of their first six games. That's not awesome, but that's not bad with four of those games on the road and only one easy opponent (Ottawa) thus far.
