SvoNotes: Blue Jackets let one get away in St. Louis

Even after Saturday night's 6-3 loss in St. Louis, the Blue Jackets have won five of their last seven games, and the team's 12-7-0 record is light years ahead of what most NHL prognosticators expected entering the season.
But like any team, the Jackets have had some areas where they need to improve, and at times, the No. 1 culprit has been the team's defensive play.

Before a shutout of Winnipeg on Wednesday, Columbus had given up an average of 3.60 goals per game in a 10-game span. That impressive showing against the Jets was followed up by a shaky 4-2 win Friday night vs. Vancouver, then the wheels came off defensively as the Blue Jackets allowed a season-high six goals in a 6-3 setback Saturday night against St. Louis.
"I think overall we didn't play good enough to win," said defenseman Adam Boqvist, who scored two goals for the first time as a Blue Jacket. "We turned the puck over too much. I think (Joonas Korpisalo) did some big saves for us in the second as well, but if we are going to win against St. Louis we have to play better overall for 60 minutes.
"It's not good enough. I think this was one of the worst games of the year for us."
It might not have been a total meltdown -- the Blue Jackets did carry the play while building a 1-0 lead in the first 20 minutes -- but the biggest concern was something that is starting to become a bit of a trend. When momentum starts going the other way, the Blue Jackets have had trouble of late stemming the tide.
For the youngest team in the NHL, Columbus has showed remarkable reserve all season, only once losing more than one game in a row and impressing with how it has handled a lot of situations. But some lessons can only be learned over time on the ice, and it's part of a process that head coach Brad Larsen would like to try to speed up if possible.
"I liked our first and yeah, for about 14 minutes there, we just couldn't stop anything," he said of how the Blues turned the tide in the second. "We couldn't gather ourselves. The last six (minutes of the second) were fine. We kind of caught ourselves. Beginning of the third we were fine, got one there, then a couple of mistakes and that's it.
"Good teams do that. … It's new for some guys for sure. You see the games where it got away from us like the Rangers, you talk about Vegas, you talk about a game like this, there's some experienced teams there, some experienced guys, and they run with that momentum for a while. We have to learn how to stop it."
To someone like Zach Werenski, the answer is simple. As he's been brought out to discuss recent setbacks, what has ailed the Jackets when the game is getting away from them is getting away from the team's strengths.
"I think just play hard and play simple," Werenski said. "Not trying to make plays really, just get pucks out, get pucks in, get on our forecheck. It seems like whenever another team has momentum and we get to the other team's blue line, we're trying to make plays or we're turning pucks over. We're not keeping it simple, and they just keep coming and coming.
"There's never an easy way to get out of that. I think moving forward when other teams come in like that, we just have to keep the game simple, get pucks out, get them in, get on our forecheck and play a simple hockey game."

A Few Positives

Other than the first period -- hey, at least there were some good minutes -- there were two main things the Blue Jackets could hang their hat on going forward.
First would be the play of Boqvist, who turned in one of his best outings as a Blue Jacket with two goals and an assist. He tallied a pair of goals in the third period, first taking a sublime pass form Jakub Voracek on the power play early in the period and making no mistake with his shot, pulling the Jackets within one at 3-2.
And once the game got away from the team, he added a second goal in the final moments, taking another great feed from Alexandre Texier and sniping goalie Ville Husso over the glove from the right circle.
As the game went on and Larsen changed up the defensive pairings, Boqvist found himself playing with Werenski.
"In terms of Boqy tonight, I thought he played pretty good," Werenski said. "Two goals, one assist. He's a hell of a hockey player. I can read off him well. It seems like he makes good plays. He always knows where to be. Tough game, but one of the positives was obviously how he played."
Boqvist was acquired in the trade this offseason that sent Seth Jones to Chicago, and the Blue Jackets targeted the right-shot defenseman because of the offense he brings. Still just 21, the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft missed a handful of games near the start of the season with a lower-body injury but has chipped in four goals since, including three in the last two games.
"I think it's always nice to score, but when you're not winning, it's not what you want," he said. "Overall, I think guys want to help the team win in any way I can to win hockey games for our team."
Boqvist's first goal came on the power play, one of two man advantage goals for the Jackets on the night. Columbus has scored three goals in three games since adding Boqvist to the top power-play unit, with Werenski tallying in the win over Winnipeg on Wednesday and two more goals going in Saturday night.
The Blue Jackets' new setup allows Werenski, Boqvist and Voracek to move about the top of the zone to create confusion, and it's worked so far. Werenski scored a key goal from the right circle on Wednesday and created the opening goal on Saturday as well, as his shot from the left dot went off Jenner in front and got behind Husso. Boqvist got the second assist on that goal then later added his own power-play tally as the Jackets notched multiple power-play goals for the third time this year.
"It seems like we're moving the puck well right now," Werenski said. "Jake makes a great play to Boqy on that second one there. First one was Boone doing what he does best, standing at the front. It seems like we're all on the same page making plays, and hopefully we can be successful for our team some more."

Stats and Facts

• Voracek extended his NHL lead in primary assists by notching his 15th of the season on Boqvist's first goal.
• Jenner became the first CBJ player to reach 10 goals on the year. He's tied for 14th in the NHL with 10 tallies and one of 20 players to reach double digits in goals to this point.
• One game after seeing a six-game point streak (3-5-8) came to a close, Werenski had an assist and led the way with five shots on goal.
• Columbus fell to 5-4-0 when scoring the first goal of the game.
• Vladislav Gavrikov had been on a 2-3-5 run in the last three games and was plus-8 in a six-game span, but he was minus-4 on this night.
• The Blue Jackets fell to 8-2-0 against the Western Conference, with games on this trip remaining at Nashville and Dallas.
• Texier has a 4-3-7 line and plus-6 rating in the last 10 games after having the primary assist on Boqvist's second goal.