Thomas has goal, assist; Buchnevich stays hot with goal; Kyrou has two-point game; takeaways from Blues' 3-2 OT loss against Oilers

Blues-Oilers takeaways (2-28-24) (6:15)

But there there was plenty of effort in this one, plenty of solid performances. The Blues (30-26-3) just got beat by the best player, arguably, on the planet when Connor McDavid scored with 25.3 seconds left in the extra session.

Robert Thomas continued to pile up the points with a goal and assist, Jordan Kyrou had two assists, Pavel Buchnevich stayed hot with his seventh goal in seven games and Jordan Binnington was rock solid with 32 saves.

Unfortunately, the Blues are winless in three straight (0-2-1) and fell to 2-5-1  in their last eight games. They moved within five points of both the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators but they need to start bagging two points on a regular basis if they want to stay in this playoff race in the Western Cobference.

Let's break the game down with the crucial moments in the three-period takeaways:  

* First Period -- All the talk about one team played last night, the other was sitting there resting, I don't buy into all that.

So by that logic, the Oilers should have been all over the Blues.

Well, someone forgot to tell the Blues that.

Leon Draisaitl high-sticked Nick Leddy 2:05 into the game and Thomas scored 14 seconds later to make it 1-0 on a wicked shot from just inside the right circle, his 20th of the season to match his career high first set in 2021-22.

Thomas won the face-off, then the Blues were able to work it around the perimeter to Thomas, who stepped into open ice, changed his shooting angle past Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse to wire a wrister top shelf.

The Blues kept the foot on the gas and Buchnevich stayed hot, scoring his seventh in seven games and kept his rumored trade value high when he made it 2-0 at 4:49 after the top line gained the zone, Thomas' initial shot was wide, but Jordan Kyrou was able to find it behind the net, Feed Buchnevich in the slot for the finish off Draisailtl's stick and over Stuart Skinner.

The Oilers started to tilt the ice and had their first great chance off a 3-on-1, but Marco Scandella played it well going down and taking the passing lane away, and Alexey Toropchenko's back-check also prevented Ryan McLeod from getting a chance on the play at 11:40.

Then Binnington was called into action; he made two big stops on consecutive shots. One on Brett Kulak, then Warren Foegele's rebound from the slot at 16:30.

He then made a right pad save when McDavid was able to cut into the slot at 17:28 to stay locked in.

But then Kevin Hayes takes a bad penalty late when he tripped Evan Bouchard at 18:08, and true to form, the Oilers cut the lead to 2-1 eight seconds later.

Hyman got inside position (remember this two weeks ago?) on Nick Leddy at the front of the net, took McDavid's pass from the corner and on the second chance was able to backhand one past Binnington.

The Oilers had 12 of the final 16 shots of the period and outshot the Blues 12-8.

* Second Period -- Two weeks ago, the Blues played arguably their best period of hockey when they outscored Edmonton 4-0 and took control of the game, 5-2, when they entered the second trailing 2-1.

The Blues had another mistake-prone moment when Colton Parayko hoisted a puck high, it wound up being offside, and instead of someone holding his ground, Parayko, Leddy and Thomas went off on a risky line change, Bouchard is able to up the puck to McDavid, and he and Hyman make no mistake in tying the game 2-2 at 4:54, a chance Binnington got a piece of outstretched with his glove.

The game started to slow down a bit, which favored the Blues, and they gained a second power play when Nurse hoisted a puck into the stands for delay of game at 14:30, and they could have had a couple terrific chances but Torey Krug doesn't connect with Buchnevich in a shooting position in the slot, and Kyrou had Thomas in stride and put the pass through his legs and out of the zone.

The Blues had a late chance when Oskar Sundqvist and Kyrou took off on a 2-on-1 but Bouchard made a terrific defensive play batting down Sundqvist's pass to Kyrou but ultimately, took an interference penalty at 20:00 and the Blues began the third with fresh ice and a third power play.

Edmonton had a 23-19 shots advantage at the end of two.

* Third Period -- It was another start to a period where each team was almost feeling each other out, and the Blues did nothing with the fresh ice and produced no shots on their latest power play. 

But when Kulak's right point shot hit the cross bar, the Blues had an odd-man rush and Skinner turned into his inner Binnington and made a terrific blocker save on Zack Bolduc's point blank chance at 4:35.

Binnington wanted to do his part and again, he did when the Blues failed to get a clearance, Binnington thwarted Draisaitl's one-timer from the right circle at 8:35.

Sundqvist high-sticked Evander Kane and got two for high-sticking, although he could have been nabbed for a double-minor with blood at 8:35, but the penalty kill was exceptional on that kill.

Thomas had the game on his stick when he had a shorthanded breakaway, but he never got the shot off when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins hustling back caught up to Thomas, who slowed down on the play and stripped the Blues center of the puck.

The game went to OT with the Oilers leading 32-31 in shots.

* Overtime -- There was a lot of puck possession, not really a track meet but in spurts, and when Jake Neighbours and Brandon Saad had consecutive shots stopped late in OT, it was a chance for perhaps the Blues to keep possession when Neighbours retrived the loose puck along the wall with 1:16 remaining, but he lost it there to Nugent-Hopkins, and the Oilers would keep it.

And in the end, McDavid cut around Thomas in the neutral zone, then around Kyrou's stick and beat Binnington from the left circle off the goalie's left shoulder and jersey with 25.3 seconds remaining to give the Oilers the win.