It is not oftern to say that a team was fantastic in a losing effort. On Saturday night, on the road in Ohio, the St. Louis Blues were just that in their 3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The losing streak slides to seven, but there was a small glimmer of hope that this team is finally starting to get it together. The offense was there with their highest shot total on the year, the goaltending was superb compared to the rest of the 2025-26 campaign, but the defense was still shaky at best.
Let's gather some information on what happened in this wild game, and see what we can take away from it.
Blues lose again, times seven
There is no easy way to sugarcoat it; the Blues lost their seventh straight game. It is a hard pill to swallow, but a reality of whatever you can take away from that 3-2 loss. This team fought hard, but it was not hard enough.
With the first dozen games of the season over with, a 3-7-2 record is not an ideal way to start off the year. Looking back at last season, the Blues were at least 6-6-0 at this point in time. We all know what would come in the following handful of games would be a coaching change, and the rest is history.
Are there changes like that coming soon?
Offense cannot hang their head
The Blues forward group was tenacious, quick, and decided to try and get as many pucks as possible at Blue Jackets goaltender, Jet Greaves. Tieing their previous season high from the previous game against Vancouver with 39 shots on goal, there were a couple of players who stood out on the offensive end.
Justin Faulk netted his second goal of the season on a glorious snipe coming down from the blueline. Plus Nick Bjugstad used patience on one of his team-high seven shots on goal to beat Columbus goaltender Greaves to make it the final score of 3-2.
Greaves has historically been great against the Blues in the past, and this game was no different. The offense has nothing to be ashamed of with this performance.
Hofer looked like himself
Halloween just passed, and Thanksgiving is on the way, but the goaltending performance from Joel Hofer against the Blue Jackets was a Christmas miracle. Stopping 32 of 35 shots, Hofer was neck-and-neck with Greaves in a fantastic goalie duel.
As one of the three players that could be game changers, Hofer did not disappoint.
Unfortunately, Hofer falls to 1-3 on the season, but expect his Goals Against Average and Save Percentage% to go up significantly. With all the talk of this team having severe goaltending problems, at least for one game, it looks like things are starting to subside a bit. Hofer is at least a hair more dependable to give Binnington a rest than he was before the Columbus loss.