When the Blues next take the ice Thursday night in San Jose, it will have been two weeks since they scored a power play goal.

It probably feels like longer than that to the players on the ice.

During a 5-3 loss to the Kraken on Tuesday night, the Blues power play went 0 for 4, marking the sixth straight game without a power play goal, the longest such streak of the season for St. Louis. The unit is 0 for 22 in those six games, and hasn’t scored on its last 23 chances when accounting for a fruitless power play to end the game on Feb. 16.

On Tuesday, the power play generated just four shots in 6:50 of time with the man advantage. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blues created only two high-danger chances on the power play.

Blues defenseman Torey Krug chalked it up to “poor execution.”

“We have a tendency to look for the pretty plays instead of just being direct and putting it towards the net, and recovering pucks,” Krug said. “That’s usually when the pretty plays open up. I’ve got to do a better job of taking control and being a leader of the unit and try to calm things down, put guys in positions to succeed.

“It starts with one guy and hopefully it bleeds through the rest of the power play. If we’re not scoring, we’ve got to at least get momentum for our team.”

A competent Blues power play could have masked other deficiencies on Tuesday night.

It could have covered for a pair of rookie mistakes that led to Seattle goals, as Tyler Tucker’s pinch in the first period and Nikita Alexandrov’s net-front coverage in the second led to Kraken goals. It could have hidden Morgan Geekie’s two-goal night for the Kraken, or disguised a lengthy Seattle possession that created Jamie Oleksiak’s third-period goal.

The Blues power play could have been the difference between a loss that ran the losing streak to six games, and a win that the team badly needed given a week of trades, fiery comments and losses.

“They’re not passing it very well,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “They’re not seeing it. They’re just not seeing the plays. And we miss the net. We get some good opportunities but we’re missing the net. But the passing’s got to be better. And we just got to see it. We’re not seeing it right now. And we got to hit the net.”

The signs of improvement also aren’t anywhere to be seen.

Asked if there was progress on the power play despite a lengthy drought, Berube said “Well, it’s 0 for 22, so not really any progress,” and Buchnevich replied with a flat “No.” So how does it get fixed?

“Be simple and make better plays, don't try to be too cute, try to put more pucks at the net and try to score greasy goals, not like seam pass and one-timer at empty nets,” Buchnevich said. “Now confidence is not as high and I think we rely on seam passes too much right now.”

A timely power play would not have made the difference in blowout losses to Colorado, Ottawa or Carolina. But in overtime losses to Vancouver and Pittsburgh, it sure would have. And also on Tuesday night, when the Blues were in a position to tie the game late after pulling the goaltender.

“Yeah, I think 5-on-5 we've done a lot of good things, penalty kill's been pretty good,” Blues forward Robert Thomas said. “Just need to find a way to score on the power play. I think it'll definitely get us over that little edge.”

Since the O’Reilly trade on Feb. 17, the Blues have been one of the worst power play teams in the NHL — and not just when it comes to scoring goals. They are 31st in shot attempts per hour and 30th in shots. They are dead last in expected goals, scoring chances and high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Even with losing O’Reilly, the top unit of Krug, Thomas, Buchnevich, Jordan Kyrou and Brayden Schenn remains largely the same.

“We have the talent on the unit,” Krug said. “To be honest, the unit that steps out after us has been getting just as good, if not better chances for us. A lot of times, it doesn’t come down to talent or personnel. It comes down to work ethic and just being direct, listen to the coach’s game plan, try and execute it as best you can. Personnel is what it is.”

At this point in the season, wins and losses matter little to the Blues. That much was decided when general manager Doug Armstrong dealt five players off his roster to contending teams. Effort clearly does, as evidenced by the explosive comments from Berube and Alexey Toropchenko following the Vancouver loss. So does getting production from the franchise cornerstones who will be around for a quick retool.

Thomas’ shorthanded goal Tuesday was his first goal since Feb. 11. Kyrou and Schenn have not scored since Feb. 16. Krug’s last point came on Feb. 14.

“A lot of firsts this year,” Krug said. “It’s a new challenge. We’ve got to try to learn from it and overcome it, and come out of it stronger. Hopefully, we can all come back to the rink tomorrow with a good mindset and try to get us out of that funk.

“I think if we execute and score some goals over that streak, our team’s probably winning a couple more games. We’ve got to take pride in that.”

Sign up for the Blues Update email newsletter for news features and more on hockey

Subscribe to the Net Front Presence podcast for a regular update on the St. Louis Blues