This time, it was bad breaks; call it whatever you want, it's still a loss, 6-4 against Hurricanes

And you know what, yeah, a 2-0 lead is always branded as the worst lead in hockey. On many occasions, they tend to wither away. But this time, it did feel different and it felt like the Blues were on their way to a win against a quality opponent.

But a 64-second span quickly reversed their fortunes again, and instead of talking about a good win, it's another loss, this time, 6-4 against the Carolina Hurricanes at Enterprise Center, sending the Blues (11-12-0) to their fourth loss in five games where they're one third period comeback away from a fifth straight loss -- on the heels of winning seven in a row -- on the heels of losing eight in a row -- on the heels of opening the season with three straight wins.

But getting back to Thursday, it fell apart fast, then the Blues recaptured it, only to allow it to wither away again late in the third period.

Right now, token wins isn't cutting it. They have nothing to show for token victories. Sure, there were plenty of good things going on, but again, it's a play here, a play there, a breakdown here, a breakdown there, and in this case, it was a bad break here, a bad break there and we're talking about another loss.

"We're competitive, we're in every game," said center Robert Thomas, who had an assist on Pavel Buchnevich's power-play goal in the first period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.

"It seems like any time we lose a game, it's usually 5-10 minutes where we give up a few chances that ultimately lead to goals and that's what we've got to clean up," said defenseman Torey Krug, who scored a power-play goal late in the second to tie the game 3-3. "It's up to us to learn from those mistakes sooner than later. Otherwise, we're going to keep falling behind. We got to make an adjustment there."

All was going well when Buchnevich gave the Blues the lead, then Acciari made it 2-0, but let's break down how Carolina scored three times in 1:04 to grab a 3-2 lead ...

* On the first goal, several factors played into Brent Burns' goal. With Brayden Schenn in the box for hooking, Thomas had a chance to get a clearance from the corner boards below the goal line. His clearance was picked off by Burns, who skates into the edges of the left circle and throws a shot that Binnington doesn't see and goes in. Well, Binnington was hit by Carolina forward Andrei Svechnikov at the top of the blue paint, but instead of challenging, the Blues decided not to.

Berube's thinking on it was, "It's close, but the guy's not skating through the crease. It's a tough call. We called one similar to that in Pittsburgh last year and it was overturned. It's a similar play."

As it turns out, a couple sources that spoke directly to the situation room in Toronto were told that had the Blues challenged, they would have lost due to incidental contact. So they made the right call there, but what Berube was most miffed about is what they could control, and that was the failed clear.

"We've got to get a kill there," he said. "That puck for me has got to be cleared when we could have done a better job probably after we didn't clear it. It's just being a little bit tighter there and not giving so much time to Burns."

* On the Jordan Martinook goal that tied the game 2-2, a complete missed call by officials Justin St. Pierre and Carter Sandlak when Acciari was tripped from behind by Canes defenseman Brady Skjei, and mere seconds later, Martinook was tying the game up.

Acciari had his back to Skjei, so there was no way he could see him coming. Acciari had the puck protected but took Skjei's stick between his legs, and no call.

"I thought Acciari was tripped in the slot, it should have been a penalty, all day long," Berube said. "I looked at it. For me, it's a penalty, they score there."

One could hear the stunned silence in the building, but it wasn't finished yet.

* Goal three, for the 3-2 lead, came off the rush, at 6:28 when Martin Necas cut inside around Ryan O'Reilly and fed Seth Jarvis, whose shot from the left circle clipped the shaft of Colton Parayko's stick and throwing Binnington for a loop.

"You go from a 2-0 lead and you're down 3-2 but part of that happens, it happened to us a lot this year, they get a bunch of goals right away," Thomas said. "I thought we battled back good, our power play got us a couple of big goals, we came out good in the third."

"Yeah, blink of an eye and it's 3-2 them," defenseman Torey Krug said. "That's where understanding, knowing how to win, learning how to win is part of the process throughout a year. Teams have to know what a game means and, like I said, whoever's going over the boards has to understand that."

The Blues, though, did understand that here in this game. They did fight back, getting Krug's power-play goal at 15:55 to tie the game 3-3, then making a strong push into the third period to try and reclaim the game.

But another play that could have been executed properly, that needed to be executed properly, wasn't, and it ended up in the back of the Blues' net, and ultimately cost them at least a point, if not two.

On Martinook's go-ahead goal at 15:25, Vladimir Tarasenko failed to get a puck in deep off the right wall, and in turn, had it poked away by Jaccob Slavin. Slavin was able to punch the puck past an aggessive Blues defense, including Parayko, and Martinook was off to the races along the left side. Nick Leddy did what he was supposed to do and closed the play down, but Martinook's shot from the left circle clipped the tip of Leddy's stick and slid through the pads of Binnington.

Ouch.

"I really liked our third period a lot," Berube said. "I thought we had control of the period. We've just got to manage it better. Like Colton, I'd like him not to get up so tight on that play. It's a tough play. Vladi's by himself, he's got guys on him, he's trying to get it in, it doesn't get in. I think Colton's got to be a little more patient there. It probably would have been a nothing play."

As for Tarasenko, does he need to make a quicker puck play to elimate everything else?

"Yeah, you've got to make a stronger play for sure, 100 percent," Berube said. "But there's a lot of good in the game, but obviously not good enough."

Not good enough seems to be the theme right now, and it's costing the Blues points and place in the Western Conference standings.

"Tied game with five minutes left. I thought we had a really good third period too," Thomas said. "I thought we pressed them, had a bunch of chances, games like that are going to happen.

"Dallas and Carolina are two pretty good teams and I felt we were in it both times. It came right down to the wire and sometimes it goes against you. I think being more consistent. It's been a key theme for us and try not to have those lapses where we give up three goals."

Despite the results, the Blues think they're not far off, no matter what the fans think.

"We played 50 minutes of pretty good hockey; it's the other 10 minutes that kill us," Krug said. "We came out in the third with the right mentality (and) unfortunately a goal goes in and puts us back on our heels and we just couldn't overcome it. It's a tough one.

"We're a good team. The record doesn't exactly show that, but I think pretty soon, we're going to overtake games and we're going to put together 60 full minutes. Like you said, we're playing good stretches of hockey against pretty good teams and we have a chance to win. It's starting to come, it will come. I think we all have the confidence in here that'll start taking over."

It won't be easy though. The schedule in December is going to be a gauntlet, starting with Saturday in Pittsburgh, then back-to-back road games in New York against the Rangers and Islanders, then coming home to face Winnipeg, Colorado and Nashville before a five-game road trip that leads in to Christmas.

"It's a tough month here," Berube said. "We've got to play good hockey here to stay in it for sure. It's a busy month. We've got three back-to-backs. We've got to clean it up. We did a lot of good things tonight, but obviously not good enough."