Three takeaways from Blues overtime loss to Panthers

The St. Louis Blues have been on a downward spiral as of late, and they had a tough test in the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Florida Panthers. It was a rough and tough game, but the Blues, more specifically goaltender Joel Hofer, stole a point by forcing overtime. It was a game they were not supposed to be in, but they got something out of it, and if it wasn't for a blatantly blown call near the end of the third period and a horrendous penalty from captain Brayden Schenn in overtime, they might have rewarded themselves with the other point.

The Blues lost this one, 2-1 in overtime.

Let's talk about it.

Continuing to rely on goaltending is not sustainable

Simply, one goal is not going to be enough to beat any team in the NHL. This seems to be a growing trend, as this is the fourth time in the past six games that they have only been able to muster one goal in 60 minutes of game time. The offense is continuing to stall, and obviously, this formula isn't working. Whether it is the current personnel or the line combos, this is not working anymore.

If not for backup goaltender Hofer, this would have been a much bigger defeat. He stood tall against a really good Panthers offensive unit and held them to two goals on 27 shots. Of course, the goal he did let in was an unexpected softy from Aleksandar Barkov in the final seconds of Overtime. Even still, he was the main reason why they were able to get a point out of this one.

If the Blues want to win hockey games and compete against some of the league's best, they cannot just rely on goaltending. The offense needs to wake up.

Bad no-call and a horrendous penalty in late stages

Toward the end of the third period and into the extra frame, some moments completely changed the outcome of this game. First, Panthers forward Sam Bennett received no penalty for this hit on Jake Neighbours in the final two minutes of the third period. Bias or not, the consensus is that this should have been deemed a penalty of some kind. Whether it is elbowing, targeting, or even boarding, this has to fall into some kind of penalty.

Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery spoke after the game on the incident, and he described it perfectly. "That's a real dangerous hit. That's not a hit that's supposed to be in the league," Montgomery said. Neighbours would not return to the game and missed the overtime period.

This was then followed by a horrendous penalty taken by captain Brayden Schenn. It was equal parts a bad turnover and a subsequent penalty from Schenn and also an undeniably awesome forecheck from one of the best in the game, Barkov. Either way, just a bad sequence of events, all of which could have been avoided.

Blues played a super close game

For a sixth-place team in the Central to take a first-place team in the Atlantic for the full 60-minutes, that should be considered a win. Additionally, this was super close, and I mean super close. Faceoffs were 50.9% to 49.1% in favor of the Blues, each team had 27 shots on goal and they also both only had four penalty minutes each.

What are your thoughts on the Blues 2-1 overtime loss?