ST. LOUIS – That was a gut punch.
And it came from another powerhouse in the NHL, this time the Florida Panthers.
And even worse, it was a dagger blow from St. Louis’ own, Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk had a part in all three Florida goals, including getting the tip of Sam Reinhart’s slot shot with 11.8 seconds remaining in regulation to send the Panthers to a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Aleksander Barkov controlled the puck off the wall and was able to feed Reinhart a pass in the slot past Jordan Kyrou, and after Reinhart’s initial shot was blocked by Colton Parayko, the puck came back to Reinhart and his second attempt found Tkachuk, who was stationed to Joel Hofer’s right and he was able to tip it home.
“We were in the right spots defensively,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The first shot, hit the guy right in front of him. I would like Reinhart to be hit after that, but we turned and looked for the puck and he found it and made us pay.
“It’s easy for me to say in the heat of the heat of the moment, but you always want to get skin on the guy that’s shooting the puck so that he can’t get another opportunity, rebound, usually at the net. That’s what I saw on that play.”
Tkachuk finished with two goals and an assist, extending his goal- and point streak to five games, offsetting the night the Blues (24-26-5) were in another tight game, like Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss against the Edmonton Oilers, but fall short.
Zack Bolduc and Oskar Sundqvist scored, and Hofer made 31 saves in a terrific performance.
Let’s go into Thursday’s Three Takeaways:
* That was a gut punch – Just when it looked like the Blues were going to overtime for the second straight game, against the second of two straight Stanley Cup finalists from a year ago, their hearts were ripped out.
When Tkachuk was able to get a piece of Reinhart’s second effort from the slot and tip it under the right arm of Hofer, it shocked the Enterprise Center crowd and the Blues.
They had put in a solid enough effort to at least earn a point, only to come away with nothing against the defending Cup champs:
“You’ve got to get a point out of it,” Montgomery said. “That’s a team that’s won the Stanley Cup, went to the Stanley Cup finals. They know who they are, they know how they want to…