In their first two meetings this season, the Nashville Predators bludgeoned the St. Louis Blues on hat tricks from their top scorers, Steven Stamkos and Filip Forsberg

But in their third meeting, a 3-2 loss at Enterprise Center on Dec. 27, the Blues held the Predators‘ top scorers to zero points and just three combined shots on goal.

“Everybody’s paddle wasn’t in full tonight,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Thought we eased into the game, though we got going in different stretches. We made some mental mistakes off the rush that killed us.”

Forsberg, Stamkos, and also Ryan O’Reilly saw lengthy point streaks come to an end as Nashville (16-17-4, 36 points) dropped two points behind St. Louis (15-16-8, 38 points) to sixth in the Central Division. Forsberg’s was a season-high nine-game point streak that began on Dec. 6.

While the Blues got most of their offense from Pavel Buchnevich, who scored two goals off the rush, it was their defense that did most of the work. St. Louis held strong in the middle of the ice, forcing errant shots from Nashville and supporting goaltender Joel Hofer, who made 30 saves.

This loss exposed a key weakness to Nashville’s roster: When the Predators’ stars aren’t producing, the lineup doesn’t have much bite.

Depth players like Tyson Jost, who scored his third goal of the season, and Fedor Svechkov, who scored his second, did their best to get Nashville back in the game. Nicolas Hague chipped in with two assists from the blue line.

But when their most important players aren’t contributing, it’s difficult for the Predators to beat most teams.

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“We grab this (loss), digest it. Not happy about it. Then move forward, that’s all we can do,” Brunette said. “We’ve got to be better, we know it, and it’s just going to get harder as this trip goes on.

Next up is the second stop of a six-game road trip with Nashville visiting the Utah Mammoth on Dec. 29 (8 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).

Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.