The St. Louis Blues didn't have any time to sulk after losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They traveled farther south and took on the defending champions, the Florida Panthers.
It was a bit of a track meet in the first couple of minutes. St. Louis missed on a backdoor chance and then Florida came the other way and forced a big save from Joel Hofer.
Once the Blues calmed down, they started getting solid chances. They outshot the Panthers in the first half of the first period, but couldn't solve Sergei Bobrovsky.
Unfortunately, the offense went cold and the Panthers came to life. The defense and Hofer had to be solid to hold the 1-0 lead into intermission.
In typical Blues fashion, things went wrong at the wrong time. The offense was finally starting to wake up, but Florida countered.
St. Louis couldn't clear the puck after a faceoff in their zone and then got caught puck-watching defensively. That allowed Uvis Balinskis to sneak in the right wing and snap one on a backdoor one-timer for a 1-1 game.
Late in the second, Jordan Kyrou earned a power play with a good defensive play. The Blues almost immediately gave up a shorthanded goal on their first shift but pulled it together to get some good offensive looks. They forced a big pad save, but couldn't score. Florida buzzed in the final seconds, almost taking the lead, but it remained 1-1 after 40 minutes.
The Blues got another power play early in the third period when Alexey Toropchenko got held. Again, even with a few shots on, they just couldn't penetrate the pressure from the Florida penalty kill.
Both teams had some shots, but there was a lull in the direct offense. Still, Florida felt the more likely to score and almost did with about three minutes left, but Hofer made a big save, and the defense managed to get it away.
The Blues should have been awarded a power play with about 90 seconds left when Jake Neighbours took a cheap shot in the corner, but no penalty was given. The game stayed tied through 60 minutes, forcing overtime.
It was a slow start to the extra frame, but once it picked up, it picked up. Both teams created some chances off their forecheck, and it seemed like Dylan Holloway would end it twice, but he was stopped both times.
Florida got a tripping call on Brayden Schenn, giving them a power play with 42 seconds left. Aleksander Barkov drew the penalty and ended the game about 25 seconds later. He snapped a shot from the right circle that just squeaked through Hofer's armpit for a 2-1 Panthers win.
Con: Game-winning goal
Just like I didn't blame Jordan Binnington for the loss against Tampa, I don't blame Hofer for this loss, either. You can't win many games only scoring one goal.
However, if we look at the goal in a vacuum, it wasn't a great one to give up. Hofer wasn't screened and it wasn't a blistering shot.
It was a well-placed shot and Barkov deserves a lot of credit for getting the puck on the net. It's also a shot that Hofer saves 90-95 times out of 100.
What stinks about it is, like Binnington, Hofer has been keeping this team in more games than I can count. This contest could have easily been over in regulation several times, but Hofer made the big stops to earn the point. Then it slips away with one shot that didn't seem that hard. It's just how 2024-25 is going for the Blues goalies, I guess.
Pro: Shot battle
Maybe I'm looking for silver linings here, but the Blues are keeping themselves in the shot battles and that's a good thing. For the second night in a row, they kept things pretty even in terms of the total number of shots taken and allowed.
The reality of the situation is the Blues buzzed for small chunks and hit the goalie, while Florida had tons of chances and put many wide. St. Louis also had 21 blocks too.
Nevertheless, at least the Blues are hitting the target. Even if they didn't feel quite as threatening for as long, they had the same total shot numbers and also had 14 of theirs blocked by Florida.
It's a process, but if the shots keep coming at least then we can switch the focus to converting instead of a lack of offense in any sense.
Overview:
This game didn't feel like a loss the same way the Tampa one did, but it's still a loss. The Blues gained an important point and I'd take 82 points via overtime rather than regulation losses.
Nevertheless, even though we're not halfway through the season, we're past time for moral victories. In the same breath as admitting 82 overtimes would be fine, I'd also prefer 10 ugly wins in a row as opposed to losing in overtime and trying to say the team is taking baby steps.
The reality is that's where we're at. The Blues won the faceoff battle by a slim margin and had more blocks and fewer giveaways. The shots were even, and you held the team with the most goals in the Eastern Conference to one goal in regulation.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter. The offense couldn't get the job done on a night when the goaltending and defense did.
It wasn't as though it was a poor offensive effort either. It just didn't feel that threatening. You could probably count on one hand the amount of times you felt like a Blues goal was coming.
The one confusing thing is whether Bobrovsky was good or lucky. Perhaps it was both.
There were two distinct shots by the Blues from dangerous spots that went directly into his pad and he didn't even move. Did he know not to move or did he not even see the shot?
Ultimately it doesn't matter as he made the save, but it changes how you feel about it. On one hand, an unorthodox goalie shut you down. On the other hand, you created some great looks and just got snake-bitten.
Overall, there just isn't enough from this team. The defense and goaltending have been good enough, but it has to be perfect to get wins. The offense is better but needs to be perfect to create more without leaving the defense out to dry.
There are next to no games when even the best in the league are perfect, so the results for a team like the Blues are going to be beyond mixed.