Those that may not have seen the game and took a peek at the stat sheet without seeing the score may have thought the St. Louis Blues won a hockey game on Thursday.
It was similar like many of their losses this season in which they created good scoring chances, only to not be able to finish.
The Blues outshot the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday but were their own victims yet again in a 3-1 loss at Amalie Arena.
Pavel Buchnevich scored the lone goal, but Jordan Binnington was pulled after allowing three goals — for the fifth time in his past six starts — on just 11 shots early in the second period and replaced by Joel Hofer.
The Blues (15-16-3) fell a game under .500 with their third loss in four games, and in each scoring just one goal. It’s the ninth time this season they’ve scored one goal in a game.
Let’s take a look at the game’s Three Takeaways:
* Getting no secondary scoring — Right how for the Blues, if the name doesn’t say Kyrou, Buchnevich or Thomas, they’re not scoring.
Jordan Kyrou (four goals), Buchnevich (two) and Robert Thomas (one) have accounted for each of the past seven Blues goals going back four-plus games.
Buchnevich scored a really nice goal off some strong work by the Mathieu Joseph, Zack Bolduc and Alexandre Texier line that created strong sustained offense:
But it was another example of the Blues getting no secondary scoring.
The well has dried up for Dylan Holloway, who capped a seven-game point streak with an overtime game-winning goal Dec. 10 against the Vancouver Canucks but since then, has no points and is a minus-6 in five games; Jake Neighbours has two goals the past nine games; Brayden Schenn has one goal in 11 games and none the past four, and he has one 5-on-5 goal all season; Bolduc has two goals the past nine games since his first multi-goal game in the NHL in coach Jim Montgomery’s debut Nov. 25 against the New York Rangers; Brandon Saad has no goals his past 16 games and has scored in just two of 30 games; Joseph hasn’t scored in his past 16 games and has just one assist in that stretch; Oskar Sundqvist, who was a healthy scratch Thursday, has no goals in 14 games; Alexandre Texier has one goal in 16 games this season and none the past 13; Alexey Toropchenko has one goal in 32 games this season but none in his past 21; Nathan Walker has no goals (or points) the past 12 games, and Radek Faksa, who has missed the past five games with a lower-body injury, has just two goals in 29 games, none in his past 11 games.
Even…