3 major takeaways from Chicago Blackhawks' loss in preseason game vs St. Louis Blues

The Chicago Blackhawks entered Saturday night's contest against the St. Louis Blues looking for the first win of their exhibition schedule. The Blues were also winless coming into the game.

The Blues eventually sent their fans in attendance at the Enterprise Center home happy, thanks to their comeback 3-2 overtime victory. Things started well for the Blackhawks, who took a 2-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, thanks to tallies from former Blues forward Pat Maroon along with Philipp Kurachev:

Maroon, who won the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019, is in his first year with the Blackhawks after signing a one-year deal during the offseason.

However, the Blackhawks were unable to maintain their advantage following third-period tallies by newcomer Dylan Hollaway and Nathan Walker which knotted the score. Hollaway arrived in St. Louis from the Edmonton Oilers via an offer sheet that the Oilers decided against matching.

In overtime, Hollaway starred for the Blues with his winning goal 3:11 into the extra session. Goaltender Petr Mrazek finished with 32 saves on the 35 shots that he faced, while Jordan Binnington (10 saves on 12 shots) and Colten Ellis (11 saves on 11 shots) split time in net for St. Louis.

Here are three talking points from the game:

#1 The Blackhawks remain winless in preseason

While these games don't mean anything in the standings, the fact that the Blackhawks remain winless through the first three outings likely isn't encouraging for fans.

The Blues improved to 1-3 in exhibition play, while the Blackhawks dropped to 0-2-1. On the heels of a shutout loss in Detroit, Chicago blowing a two-goal lead is a tough lesson.

#2 The Blackhawks are likely feeling slighted by officials

The Blues knotted the score at 2-2 after Walker's goal withstood a video review from on-ice officials, but they had blown the play dead and indicated that the puck hadn't crossed the line.

Walker crashed the net and attempted to bury the puck past goaltender Petr Mrazek, who ended up inside the net at the same time. On video review, the call on the ice was reversed.

NHL rules prohibit players from pushing the goaltender along with the puck over the goal line, something Mrazek felt had taken place, but his argument was to no avail.

#3 The Hall-Kurashev-Mikheyev line flourished

A positive outcome from Saturday night's game was that Chicago's line of Philipp Kurashev flanked by Taylor Hall and Ilya Mikheyev performed well together, combining for the opening goal:

Don't be surprised to see coach Luke Richardson roll with this line to start the regular season.