As much fun as we had watching the Blue Jackets take the game to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, it's hard to look at last night's game in St Louis and be anything but concerned about this team. I'm not sure there are many adjectives to describe how poorly the Jackets played.
From the opening whistle, they never looked like a team that was ready to play. It felt like any time they needed to dump the puck in, they forced a pass. And any time the pass was there, they forced the dump in.
Their structure collapsed early (and often), and they allowed the St Louis Blues to take the game to them through the second and third periods. Despite exiting the first period with a 2-0 lead (which I would have called miraculous, based on the odd-man rushes allowed); the Jackets left town with a sloppy 5-3 loss.
Disjointed, disconnected, and disappointing.
The most frustrating thing about last night's loss is that the Blues didn't do anything to really earn it. They weren't that great in their own right, but give them credit: they held together enough to capitalize on their chances and take two points out of this game.
This loss was mostly self inflicted by the Blue Jackets, who were trying to do too much. So, it makes sense that in the third period, Rick Bowness started shuffling his line combinations a little bit. And, it tracks that his shuffling did result in a little surge; but that surge ultimately fell back apart.
The second most frustrating thing is that this team played arguably their best game in at least two years against the Penguins on Friday night. Yes, I know the game went to a shootout; but I thought the Jackets looked poised, confident, and I never really had any doubt that they were going to win that game. There were signs of major progress in their game.
Last night, even with the lead, I was very worried. It's hard to even point to one area and say "this is where everything went wrong"; because they were that bad. St Louis is not exactly a powerhouse team in this league, but the Jackets made them appear so.
I suppose that's the one thing I can point to as a cause: every player was playing their own game. Nobody was working with their line-mates, and the whole system collapsed.
Where the momentum swung.
Even with all of the sloppy play, the Jackets had a chance to take two points out of this game. At the start of the second period, they held a 2-0 lead in front of a quiet arena. That all changed with a fight, and the moment that happened: I knew this team was in trouble.
Mathieu Olivier drops the mitts against Ross Johnston. Not in love with the timing, but Mathieu holds onto his heavyweight title. Johnston was busted open.
— Union and Blue (@UnionAndBlue) October 11, 2026
We'll see what this means for the game's momentum. #CBJ
I get why this happened. Mathieu Olivier isn't going to turn anyone down. That's his role as the top fighter in this league, and I'm glad he's on our side. But, the timing of this one couldn't have been worse from a Blue Jackets perspective. Instead of lulling the arena to sleep, this was the point where all of the momentum swung the other way.
Even though he won the fight, this gave the crowd a little bit of energy, which helped spark the Blues comeback. After that moment, the shots in the second period were 12-3 for the home team, and they scored three times.
That's all it took for the Blues to take full advantage of a Blue Jackets team that was playing on their heels all night. Hopefully, there is enough footage in this one to show this team what not to do. Because it sure was ugly last night.
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