“There’s not a lot of offense going on right now, and I think it gives us a little bit better balance this way,” Berube said prior to the Penguins game. “And teams can’t match up as well.”

It marked the first time in 29 contests that Thomas and Kyrou had been separated on lines to open a game. Thomas centered a line that included Pavel Buchnevich and the since-traded Ivan Barbashev. Kyrou played right wing on a line with Brayden Schenn at center and Brandon Saad on left wing.

For one game at least, the results weren’t much different. The Blues lost 3-2 in overtime to Pittsburgh and have been outscored 21-8 in the five games since the Ryan O’Reilly trade. The Blues have not scored more than two goals in any of the five games since the trade and are winless in them at 0-3-2.

Thomas had an assist against Pittsburgh, on a Buchnevich goal, but that’s his only point in the five games since O’Reilly was shipped to Toronto. Thomas has gone seven games overall without a goal, matching his longest goal drought of the season.

Similarly, Kyrou has no goals and just one assist since the O’Reilly trade. Those five games without a goal is his season-long dry spell.

“Me and Thommer, we know how good we are,” Kyrou said Friday. “And we’ve shown it before. We know we can do it. It’s just a little slump right now. We’ve gone through slumps before and we’re gonna get out of it.”

Schenn also is struggling, with no goals and no assists since the O’Reilly trade, which matches his longest point-less streak of the season.

In his third season since signing as a free agent with the Vegas Golden Knights, former Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo has 102 points on 28 goals and 74 assists, and is plus-29.

Over those same three seasons, Blues defenseman Justin Faulk has 102 points on 31 goals and 71 assists, and is plus-38.

Forward Jimmy Snuggerud completed his first regular season of college hockey with a goal and two assists for Minnesota in a weekend series against Ohio State. The top-ranked Golden Gophers won both games to finish 25-8-1 — next up is the Big Ten Tournament.

A first-round pick (No. 23 overall) by the Blues in the 2022, Snuggerud has 20 goals and 26 assists in 34 games this season for Minnesota. (He also played for Team USA in the World Junior Championship.)

Snuggerud, 18, ended the regular season with an eight-game point streak, which matched his previous season high.

Left winger Zachary Bolduc scored twice Sunday for the Quebec Remparts in a 4-3 loss to the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. That gives Bolduc, who turned 20 on Friday, 40 goals to go along with 53 assists in 51 games this season.

Among the 60 teams in the three top junior leagues in Canada — the Quebec League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Western League — Bolduc’s 93 points rank fourth behind Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats (114), Jordan Dumais of the Halifax Mooseheads (109) and Matthew Maggio of the Windsor Spitfires (94).

Bolduc was chosen 17th overall in the 2021 draft.

In the AHL, defenseman Scott Perunovich had a goal and an assist Sunday for the Springfield Thunderbirds in their 5-2 victory over the Charlotte Checkers. He has one goal and three assists in five games since returning from a fractured shoulder earlier this month.

Among the other Thunderbirds’ goal scorers Sunday were Nikita Alexandrov and Matthew Highmore, both of whom have seen action with the Blues this season. It was the 13th goal of the season in Springfield for both players.

Three players recently acquired as part of Blues trades also showed up on the scoresheet with assists. Defenseman Hunter Skinner, who came to the Blues from the New York Rangers as part of the Vladimir Tarasenko deal, had two assists. Forward Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette, who both came from Toronto as part of the O’Reily trade, had one assist apiece.

• Since the O’Reilly trade, the Blues are 0-for-18 on the power play — a season-long drought. They have slipped to 20th in the league in power play efficiency at 20.4%.

• Defenseman Colton Paryako has led or shared the team lead in blocked shots in seven of the team’s last eight games. He leads the Blues with 102 blocked shots this season.