St. Louis Blues Takeaways From A 3-1 Loss Against The Columbus Blue Jackets

ST. LOUIS -- The cliche 'It's only preseason' has seemed to wear off for the St. Louis Blues.

Maybe for the players it hasn't, and with the rash of needless -- and in some cases, careless -- injuries to key players in exhibition games, it makes some sense. But for coaches looking to prepare their respective teams for the regular season, which for the Blues is one week from Tuesday, the message is clear: time to wake up.

That was evident by Drew Bannister's comments following a lackluster 3-1 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday at Enterprise Center that dropped the Blues to 1-4-0 with two games to play.

For Tuesday's takeaways, we'll focus more on the bad, or concerning aspects, because there were more -- way more -- of these than there were good. And that's what had Bannister concerned with Oct. 8 against the Seattle Kraken looming because even though the lineups have changed because of coaches getting looks at the preseason slate and players, a lot of the same patterns have taken place in four of the five games here.

"It's disappointing," Bannister said. "I thought we took a step forward last game (a 3-2 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks) in the way we played, especially in the last 40 minutes, and I thought tonight, we took a step backwards. We didn't drive enough plays, we didn't force ourselves to get into the fight.

"I thought it seemed like we were looking for an easy game and there are no easy games regardless of the competition or what part of the season, preseason, regular season. We're a week away from starting the season and it didn't look that way tonight."

Let's look at the alarming aspects:

* No drive -- The Blues looked punchless, even icing a lineup that consisted of as many as 14 of the 18 skaters (Brandon Saad included, even though he likely will miss the start of the season) that would be in the opening night lineup.

There was no drive, there was little to no compete, willingness to battle, you name it, the lineup tonight was absent of it.

It was a listless performance to say the least and the coach was having none of it.

"I'm just disappointed with the whole group right now," Bannister said. "I expect more from our group.

"... If I'm being honest with you, I didn't think we played well. Credit to them, they outworked us. They came to work and we weren't ready to work."

Enough said.

The focal points in this game was the competition of defensemen fighting for jobs, which included P.O. Joseph, Scott Perunovich and Tyler Tucker.

Quite honestly, there was nobody that differentiated themselves from this battle, and that's telling because it's becoming clear that the top six will include Colton Parayko, Nick Leddy, Justin Faulk, Philip Broberg, Ryan Suter and Matthew Kessel. As for the seventh and eighth d-men, nobody stood out.

Tucker did have an abbreviated fight with Mathieu Oliver, each throwing a hard right, but he also took a careless interference minor in the neutral zone that led to Yegor Chinakhov's tying power-play goal in the second at 7:43.

Bannister wouldn't single anyone out of the group, instead calling out the team.

"I think we're a much faster team, but we looked slow tonight," he said. "We moved the puck slow, we didn't support each other, so there was a lot of things that went into play for our overall game.

"At the end of the day we have to get ourselves going. This isn't the way that you're going to have success at the start of the season. If you think you're just going to turn it on when the season starts, we have to get ourselves up to speed here, and quickly."

Bannister has insisted that the practices and work habits there have been really good, but those for whatever reason haven't translated into games.

"And it hasn't, so we'll continue to push our guys in practice until we see that translate to our games," Bannister said. "That's the only way to do it. We'll continue to compete, we'll continue to work and we've got to see results on the ice in games. You don't get any points in practice. We need to come out and play and be ready to play when the puck drops for the games.

"... We were reluctant to shoot pucks. Just our habits in our game, our puck placement to be able to get to a forecheck, just small things. We weren't strong on the walls. We ended up chasing the game more than being able to take over the game in that game."

As for the good:

* Faulk, Hofer, Texier, and to a degree, Broberg and Kapanen stood out -- Faulk had a nice game, nearly putting in two helpers with precision passes to spring Robert Thomas and Saad on breakaways (each missed the net), and the Blues did have a nice power-play goal by Faulk at 3:21 of the second period to forge ahead 1-0.

Faulk led the Blues in ice time at 24:51 and blocked three shots.

Hofer is ready for the season to start. Another solid outing with 32 saves. He did what a goal is is supposed to do: give his team a chance, which he did. Enough said.

Texier had himself another solid outing and was rewarded getting moved up in the lineup off the fourth line to play with Pavel Buchnevich and Saad; he finished with 14:42 ice time and led the Blues in shots on goal again with three after leading them with seven on Saturday. He was buzzing with the puck and was just off a hair on a couple plays. But that will come with more reps and time with his new teammates after being acquired by the Blue Jackets on July 28.

"As far as the practices and the games, everything between the coaches and the team and the city, it's all new but it feels good right now," Texier said. "All good.

"There's still a lot to do and to show, but I think it's been good so far. It's only going to get harder and harder. I'm ready for that and I can't wait."

Broberg and Kapanen each displayed some speed and puck-moving capabilities. For Broberg, it will take some time to get adjusted playing with Faulk. It was their first game together Tuesday.

"I think it takes time to get used to a new partner," Broberg said. "We'll learn and get better from here."

See and hear comments from Texier, Broberg and Bannister: