Three Takeaways From Blues' 6-4 Loss Against Blue Jackets

The St. Louis Blues had found themselves some key ingredients of late to come together and give them some life.

There's been good goaltending, solid defending, and they've been filling the net up after a dry spell.

And for the seventh time this season, the Blues had an opportunity at a three-game winning streak.

A valiant effort in the third fell short, however, and the Columbus Blue Jackets came away with a wild 6-4 win at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou and Cam Fowler each had a goal and an assist, and the Blues (19-18-4) woke up in the third period and scored all their goals but also allowed four in a game that didn't have much until the final 20 minutes.

Let's break down the Three Takeaways:

* Valiant pushback in third overcome by shoddy play early -- On Friday in a 4-0 win against the Ottawa Senators, the Blues played a near flawless game. Their sticks were breaking up plays, they moved the puck cleanly and fluidly, they created with effort plays and got the goaltending needed for a solid win.

Saturday, particularly in the first 40 minutes, it was too sloppy with the puck, breakouts were seldomly clean and the net front defense wasn't good enough.

As a result, the Blues were playing catch-up the entire game.

The first two goals came off lost D-zone face-offs, one late in the first period and ensuing net front coverage by Dmitri Voronkov and another early in the second off another D-zone face-off lost that resulted in a Kirill Marchenko power-play goal that was unfortunately deflected in off Colton Parayko's stick:

Columbus' third goal was as a result of another lost face-off, this time in the O-zone with the start of a power-play, a breakout with Mikael Pyyhtia scoring shorthanded to make it 3-0, and an Adam Fantilli goal off a long bank pass that wasn't covered well and ensuing shot from the right circle:

These are just examples of poor play we haven't seen from the Blues in a while.

* Blues are allergic to three-game winning streaks -- If you want to be a playoff team, which the Blues continue to insist that they can be, it's not going to happen unless they can sustain some lengthy winning streaks.

Putting together three straight wins has been worse for them than pulling teeth.

For the seventh time this season in an attempt to string together three straight wins, the Blues failed.

They are now 0-6-1 in those situations with results as follows:

* Opened season with 3-2 win against Seattle Kraken and 5-4 overtime win against San Jose Sharks ... lost 5-3 to Vegas Golden Knights.

* Won 1-0 in OT against New York Islanders and 4-3 against Carolina Hurricanes ... lost 3-2 against Winnipeg Jets.

* Won 4-2 against Toronto Maple Leafs and 3-2 against Tampa Bay Lightning ... lost 4-2 against the Utah Hockey Club.

* Won 5-2 against the New York Rangers and 3-0 against the New Jersey Devils ... lost 3-2 in OT against the Philadelphia Flyers.

* Won 4-1 against the Jets and 4-3 in OT against the Calgary Flames ... lost 4-2 against the Edmonton Oilers.

* Won 4-0 against the Detroit Red Wings and 7-4 against the Nashville Predators ... lost 4-2 against the Buffalo Sabres.

* And won 6-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Winter Classic and 4-0 Friday ... lost Saturday.

And that's why this team is in the mucky middle with a middling 19-18-4 record.

* Offense is percolating -- On a positive note, the Blues are filling the net with goals.

That's now 27 goals (4.5 per game) in the past six games.

Unfortunately for them, all four on Saturday came in the fourth period.

Kyrou did score off the same power play the Blues gave up a shorty against when he finally beat Elvis Merzlikins at 4:54 to make it 3-1:

Fowler's fourth with the Blues in his 100th in the NHL at 6:55 made it 4-2 and the Blues kept battling:

Down three again, Colton Parayko's bomb in his 700th NHL game made it a 5-3 game at 12:54:

And when Schenn scored in as many games to make it 5-4 with 3:44 remaining on a goalmouth scramble, the Blues at least gave themselves a chance:

But Mathieu Olivier ended the comeback effort with an empty-netter with 1:01 left.

They're getting scoring by multiple players and defensemen are in on the action, but if the Blues look back at it, they had multiple odd-man rushes early in the game -- four as a matter of fact in the first period -- that they wish they could have had back.

Brandon Saad, who scored a hat trick Friday, had two glorious chances stopped, Kyrou pitched a tent in the slot but had his chance gloved, and Schenn came in off the left wing but missed the top corner. Then Dylan Holloway had a chance from the left circle gloved by Merzlikins and Jake Neighbours was stopped on a net front chance in the third period.

* Hear what coach Jim Montgomery and players had to say after the game: