The St. Louis Blues knew they'd have to show up right off the hop against the Columbus Blue Jackets. This year's team is not your father's Blue Jackets as they roll four, strong lines.
The Blues had lost six in a row, but typically play better on the road. We got more of the same as the last couple games though.
St. Louis opened the scoring for the third game in a row. A great cross-ice pass from Oskar Sundqvist on the left found Justin Faulk on the right. The defender snapped a fantastic shot =, and it was 1-0.
The lead barely lasted over a minute. Although Joel Hofer had a much better start than recent games, he didn't see the puck off a pad save, and then it got kicked in by Faulk as he was battling with a forward in front of the net.
The Blues had a lull after that goal as they continued to struggle against any adversity. They did turn things on late in the period, but could not score on a power play and let some late pressure go by when a late pass went off their own teammate's skate.
The second period was pretty even, overall, though there wasn't a ton of offense for either team. Another old habit cost the Blues again, however.
The Blue Jackets got a lot of sustained pressure and the Blues struggled to handle it. They got it out once, but not far enough and then could not get it out on the second push.
Eventually a screened shot from Zach Werenski went through the five hole for a 2-1 lead. The Blues had a good push at the end of the period yet again, but got nothing out of it.
St. Louis didn't get a break early in the third. The refs let a hold go on Columbus and then called a weak hook on Nathan Walker.
Of course Columbus scored on it. A shot from the point went through Hofer, off the post and then got tapped in while it was sitting behind him.
St. Louis tried to make a game of it. About halfway through the period, the Blues drove into the zone and Nick Bjugstad finished it off with a nice shot to make it 3-2.
The Blues got a power play shortly after the second goal, but couldn't get the puck luck. Jordan Kyrou had a snap shot from the left circle that went off the defender's toe and into the goaltender's pad.
The Blues came alive even more, but it was too little, too late. They hit the side of the net twice and hit he post once as well as forcing a few glove saves.
The best chance was a one-timer for Kyrou. Unfortunately, Pavel Buchnevich put the pass too close to him, so the shot was more off the heel than it might have been.
The Blues lost 3-2, running their losing streak to seven games.
Pro: Another decent start
When the losing streak started, the Blues were often quite terrible in the first period. They seem to have cured that, to an extent.
St. Louis is now getting off to good starts. As mentioned, for the third game in a row, the Blues score the opening goal of the game and also get it pretty early.
Unfortunately, they've also coughed up the lead pretty early.
Con: Not sustaining
It's great that the Blues get off to good starts, but for a team with good leadership, they're mentally weak. They're unable to build on leads because they're just waiting for bad things to happen and they do happen.
I mean seriously, what is supposed to change? Hofer has traffic in front of him, so he doesn't really know where the puck is. He makes the save and then it gets kicked in by his teammate.
Concurrently, Faulk is doing his job trying to push his opponent away from the crease. He's not going to know that puck is there, so he can't avoid it.
It's just those small things that keep going wrong and then it unravels. It's easy to say it from the couch and it's not easy in reality. However, the Blues have to find a way to get a multiple-goal lead and sustain it. Crush them and never let up.
Con: Special teams
St. Louis isn't horrendous on special teams. In fact, their power play ranks in the top half of the league.
It just doesn't get the job done in key moments. The penalty kill has been both bad and snake bitten too.
The power play had two chances in this game, both in crucial moments of the game. Score late in the second period and you have a tie game and all the momentum going into the third. They didn't.
They got another power play right after their second goal of the game in the third period. Score there and you tie the game and have all the momentum with two unanswered goals. They didn't.
On top of failing to score, the power play consistently gives up breakaways to the other team. We've either seen shorthanded goals or forced big saves from our own goalies because of foolish passes.
The penalty kill was pretty good on the first two. They looked confident and got pucks out when they needed to.
They didn't do that on the third one. Yes, it's luck to have a puck go off the post and just sit behind the goalie for an easy tap in, but you're not clearing lanes for your goalie to see the puck and just poking at the puck, which will not get it out of the zone.
Pro: Hofer
Maybe I'm grasping at straws here. I did not like the Blue Jackets' second goal at all. I felt it went through Hofer and should have been saved.
That said, he was a far better goalie than he has been all season and at least gave the Blues a chance to get back into it. Hofer made some big saves too, which should give him some confidence going forward.
Overview:
It is still early in the season, but I'm starting to believe the 2025-26 Blues are going to be the 2024-25 Nashville Predators. The talent on the team is much better than the results show. For whatever reason, it's just not clicking, and they're falling too far behind.
I saw a video today discussing how the Calgary Flames, who just missed the playoffs last season, would need to have a .673 winning percentage the rest of the season to get to 96 points and give themselves a shot.
The Blues have played one fewer game than the Flames, but they only have one more win and two more points. So, while I don't know the math, I'd say that at least forces a .600 win percentage the rest of the way.
That may not sound undoable, but when you've lost seven straight, winning six out of every 10 the rest of the season sounds pretty daunting. This team can certainly do it, but I'm clueless about how they just get the next win.
We've seen far worse in terms of style of play. I'll still take this over the worst we saw unde Drew Bannister or even some of the other losing streaks when the team was actually being rebuilt.
But when the things going wrong are often from trying too hard, but it would be worse when not trying hard, there's nothing to pinpoint. You get decent goaltending and the goals aren't there. You get goals and the defense or goaltending aren't there.
As far as this game specifically, the Blues weren't awful, but when even the home announcers question where the effort and push we saw in the third period was earlier in the game, things aren't going right.
I don't have a clue how things will go on Monday against the Edmonton Oilers. The Blues could find a way to win or could lose 9-3. All we can do is hope the team finds a way to actually play for 60 minutes.