Three keys in Blues' 5-2 loss against Blue Jackets

The St. Louis Blues were viewing this weekend as an opportunity to pounce on a couple opponents that were below them in the NHL standings.

They would have loved nothing more than bringing home a pair of wins, first against the Columbus Blue Jackets Friday and Chicago Blackhawks Saturday to end a stretch of 11 of 15 games away from Enterprise Center before returning home for the week to play three games.

Well, now they have to hope for a split now after a disheartening 5-2 loss against the Blue Jackets (9-15-5), another team sitting at the bottom of the standings, this time in the Eastern Conference, that was reminiscent of their loss at the time to the San Jose Sharks last month, another team at the bottom of the Western Conference.

The loss was the second straight for the Blues (13-12-1), who had alternated wins and losses the previous eight games and this stretch has seen them lose ground in the standings with those around them able to put together winning streaks.

The Blues are lucky to put a single win together, and just trying to get two straight seems to be a chore. It's been three weeks since they've strung together two straight wins (Nov. 19-22).

 Let's take a look at the three keys as to why the Blues failed to win this game:

1. Costly mistakes, particularly by young defensemen -- The Blues are trying to give experience and ice time to their young guys, particularly defensemen Scott Perunovich and Tyler Tucker, who were paired together on Friday when coach Craig Berube sat Marco Scandella for a game and the team traded veteran Robert Bortuzzo to the New York Islanders.

It's a clear indication that they want to give these two young defensemen a leash and to see what they have at this level.

Friday was not part of the plan. 

Perunovich and Tucker were exposed twice on first-period goals simply by not being able to kill plays that simply could have been killed.

They looked out of place and even with the limited experience at the NHL level, it has to be somewhat concerning to the Blues to see these two make similar mistakes in a period when the Blues probably deserved better than the 2-1 deficit they faced.

They each had a chance to kill a play that led to Kirill Marchenko's opening goal 1:42 in, and Perunovich stepped up to kill a play along the right wall but was hesitant, and that exposed the middle of the ice for 2023 third overall pick, Adam Fantilli, to score from the left circle at 17:01 of the first.

2. No jam to their game, not willing enough to win board battles -- Columbus played on Thursday on Long Island, flew home late Thursday night and yet it seemed like the Blue Jackets had more jam and bite to their game, especially along the walls and puck battle wins.

A couple perfect examples were on Columbus' third goal, scored by Yegor Chinakov, Jordan Kyrou got cute along the offensive zone wall and lost the puck, it turned into an odd-man 3-on-2 and goal against. And on Chinakov's power-play goal at 12:21 of the third that made it 4-1, three Blues [Pavel Buchnevich, Torey Krug and Robert Thomas] were in along a wall with one Blue Jackets skater [Johnny Gaudreau], and the trio wasn't able to win the puck, it sprung loose when Buchnevich dangerously pushed it to the high slot for Chinakov to step into a clapper.

Those are the kinds of plays that happened throughout the course of the game despite the Blues holding a whopping 43-22 shots on goal advantage. In key moments, they simply failed to put in the extra effort to win those loose pucks.

3. Hofer simply not good enough again -- Not sure if it's gotten to this point yet, but coach Craig Berube has to be wondering when and how he can trust putting 23-year-old Joel Hofer into the net.

On Friday, it marked the third straight start that Hofer simply wasn't good enough.

He allowed four goals on 21 shots, good for an .810 save percentage, and he took a delay of game minor late in the first when he flipped a puck into the stands.

In the previous two starts, Hofer allowed three goals on 21 shots (.857 save percentage) in a 4-1 loss at Arizona on Dec. 2 and he allowed four goals on 15 shots (.733 save percentage) before being pulled on Nov. 24 in an 8-3 loss against Nashville.

Hofer has allowed 11 goals on 57 shots in his part three starts.

He should have been able to squeeze Marchenko's early goal in the first, was beaten by Fantilli from distance on the second and had a clear look at Chinakov's power-play goal but was also beaten from distance in the third.

Berube said after the game Hofer's "got to be better," and that's a clear sign right now that the coach doesn't trust inserting him into a game and may ride Jordan Binnington for the time being. We'll see how it plays out, but Hofer now is 5-5-0 on the season with a 3.19 goals-against average and .893 save percentage, and that's just not good enough.