Five Takeaways From St. Louis Blues' 4-2 Loss Against Utah Hockey Club

ST. LOUIS -- We can sit here and dissect another late-game mistake by Jordan Kyrou and beat it to death.

We'll get to that later, but the bottom line for the St. Louis Blues and their 4-2 loss against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday at Enterprise Center to drop them to 7-7-0 on the season and 0-3-0 within the Central Division, the larger scope was they probably didn't deserve to be within striking distance to begin with but they were, and that's what's disappointing about another late-game loss.

Let's break down some of the key points to this game:

* Sloppy all around -- It started from the opening drop of the puck, and for the sixth straight game, the Blues allowed the first goal.

This one from Michael Kesselring that got behind Dylan Holloway and was sent in alone by local boy and Blues killer Clayon Keller. The puck rolled off Kesselring's stick but through Joel Hofer and it's 1-0 just like that:

"I think our brains were turned off for whatever reason, I don't know why," Blues coach Drew Bannister said. "That play shouldn't have happened. The 'D' beat us up the ice. We got puck-focused and not watching, checking our responsibilities and little bit of a fluky goal, but if we're doing our jobs, that goal doesn't happen."

But the bottom line from start to finish was the Blues sustained no o-zone time. They were sloppy with the puck at the offensive zone blue line, and when they managed to get pucks in, puck placement was poor and the forecheck was non-existent.

"The first thing that stood out to me was just our forecheck," Bannister said. "We didn't put pucks into areas that we were able to get pressure on it. When we did, our second guy was late arriving and it was too easy for them to break out. We didn't put enough pressure on their defense early on when they went down to five to really generate much o-zone time."

"We were just a little sloppy with the puck," Blues forward Brandon Saad said. "They do a good job of clogging up the neutral zone, they've got a lot of speed and skill going the other way. I think we just got stubborn with it, didn't get pucks in deep."

The Blues were outshot in the game 31-15 because they spent too much time in their zone and didn't break pucks out cleanly.

"When you're going back for pucks more than you should be, it becomes tedious on your 'D,'" Bannister said. "When you're down to five (defensemen) at one point, you're asking a lot of your 'D' to constantly go back to get pucks, especially when you're not putting (pucks) into areas to get in on the forecheck or you're turning it over at the offensive blue line. When you're constantly breaking out, you're going to have some issues at times."

* Kyrou -- Let's just face it, he's an enigma.

Can be electrifying one moment, and make a costly mistake the next.

He scored the tying goal with 6:31 remaining off a solid wall play, the dangle into the middle of the ice by Pavel Buchnevich to put one on a platter for Kyrou to tee off a one-timer:

But just like a week ago in a 2-1 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers when Kyrou lost handle of a puck in the neutral zone that led to the eventual game-winner with just over three minutes left, this time it was a drop pass to Ryan Suter in the offensive zone that was picked off by Dylan Guenther that led to a 2-on-1. Guenther's pass to Logan Cooley caromed off Colton Parayko and in with 3:21 to play that made it 3-2 Utah, which also got an empty-netter to seal it.

"I've just got to be more direct there," Kyrou said, echoing his comments from Philadelphia. "Time of the game there, just got to put that deep."

Bannister agreed.

"As a team, we have to recognize that we haven't played well for 55 minutes of the game, and we're in a 2-2 game and we just have to push that to overtime," he said.

* Power play not generating goals, momentum -- Not only were the Blues 0-for-3 with the man advantage, including one for three minutes, but they generated -- once again -- no momentum off it either.

They're 0-for-12 dating to Oct. 29 against the Ottawa Senators ad are now 31st in the league at 11.8 percent.

Sound familiar?

But the three-minute opportunity came in the second period and they generated little to nothing. They had two shots and none on that man advantage.

"Before that, I thought we had some real quality chances," Bannister said. "It's not always going to click. Obviously we've been toying with different units. Getting the touches are important, but playing direct and getting pucks to the net and simplifying our game, that seems to be a little bit of an issue with our power play right now. We'll get it back on track."

Buchnevich said it's more than that.

"We have one power play a game (on average)," Buchnevich said. "Of course you're not going to score. We get against Toronto or Tampa Bay one power play a game, we're not going to score, it doesn't have a feeling, it doesn't have confidence. If you have like three a game or four, maybe you generate something. ... Just got to be more direct."

* Have to love P.O. Joseph -- For not only picking up the slack in the absence of Philip Broberg but also for jumping to the defense of teammate Alexey Toropchenko, who was momentarily injured when he was kneed by Utah defenseman Maveric Lamoureux 29 seconds into the second.

Joseph immediately jumped in to fight, even though he would get an instigator minor out of it.

"One-hundred percent, he's sticking up for a teammate," Bannister said. "That's something that we've seen from our team this year and want to continue to see that."

* Colton Parayko is heating up -- Not only is Parayko playing heads-up on defense with Ryan Suter, but he now has nine points on the season and third goal (with one assist) the past three games.

He scored a beauty in the first period to tie the game 1-1, a play started by a terrific breakup defensively by Jake Neighbours that led to one of the few a clean breakouts, Parayko getting the puck coming down the chute from Buchnevich, looking off Holloway and wiring a wrister top shelf.