The St. Louis Blues should have learned their lesson the last game when they came out porous and flat in a lopsided loss against the Detroit Red Wings.
It was more of the same on Tuesday in a 4-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets, the Blues' fifth in seven games, but for captain Brayden Schenn, he was seeing it before the first period breakdowns would begin.
Blues player of the game vs. Jets: Brayden Schenn (2:23)
Schenn, my player of the game, squared off with Jets captain Adam Lowry, who is listed at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, or four inches and 11 pounds heavier and with a longer reach that Schenn, who by the way held his own quite nicely in the tussle at 6:53 of the first period that forced Lowry to head to the locker room for unknown reasons, perhaps for some repairs of some sort.
But it wasn't long after that when the Blues (30-26-2) started making mistakes, fell behind 3-1 and were chasing a game they were close to catching at one point but would not do so.
As for Schenn, he created a nice, solid forecheck that created a turnover and resulted in a Brandon Saad goal at 9:03 of the second period to cut the Winnipeg lead to 3-2.
Schenn finished with a plus-1 (the only plus player for the Blues on the night) with three shots on goal and was 50 percent (5-for-10) in the dot.
He should be commended for trying to light the spark his team needed, but as usual, his teammates didn't back up their captain, which also warrants a valid question: why does Schenn seemingly always need to be the guy to light a fire when necessary?
That's a debate for another time, but for Tuesday, he's my player of the game.
More must-reads: