COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The Blues on Saturday picked up where they left off on Thursday and considering the team faded away at the end of that game, that was not a good formula.
The Blues started poorly and went downhill from there until they ran out of places to go. In the worst place in the NHL to give up a lot of goals because of that infernal cannon they fire each time Columbus scores, the Blues had their pride and their eardrums assaulted eight times in an 8-4 loss at Nationwide Arena.
The Blues did have an effective offensive night, but they matched it with the most goals they had allowed in a game in six years.
The Blues are, mercifully, off on Sunday before resuming practice Monday in a desperate search for an answer to what ails them. One good thing about the game: It finished a run of five games in eight days for the Blues. If ever a team looked spent, this is the one.
The Blues gave up three goals in the first period, most of which were avoidable, on their way to their third straight loss and fifth in their past seven games. They gave up four goals in the second, during which starting goalie Jake Allen was pulled in favor of Carter Hutton, though that didn't really change anything.
The Blues' power play, which had just one goal in its previous 26 attempts over eight games, did score four times in five attempts, once by Kevin Shattenkirk, twice by Robby Fabbri, who was back in the lineup after one game as a healthy scratch, and once by Vladimir Tarasenko, but Columbus would have had to commit multiple felonies for the Blues to able to take advantage of that. Tarasenko had three assists to give him four points on the night.
It was also the Blues' misfortune that Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was on top of his game, especially in the second period when he stopped 16 of 17 shots. The Blues had an edge in shots on goal, but Columbus made the most of what chances they had, scoring six goals on their first 15 shots.
Allen was tested just 40 seconds into the game, making a nice save on Brandon Saad on a two-on-one break. That was a precursor of things for the Blues, as Columbus kept coming, but not for Allen, who had a tough night.
With 17:26 to go in the period, Columbus' Sam Gagner took the puck out from behind Allen's goal and roofed a backhander over Allen's left shoulder from close range. After the Blues tied the game on a power-play goal by Shattenkirk, it took just eight seconds for Columbus to retake the lead. The Blues won the faceoff and Alex Pietrangelo's pass attempt to Jaden Schwartz never got there, instead ending up on the stick of Nick Foligno, who worked a give-and-go with Saad and scored, with his shot hitting Allen's glove and fluttering into the goal.
After that one, coach Ken Hitchcock called Allen to the bench and sent out backup Hutton. The move was designed to be short term _ Hitchcock talked to Allen on the bench after he came off, rather than having Allen go down the tunnel _ and at the next whistle, Allen was back in the net.
Columbus made it 3-1 with 4:50 to go in the first. Alexander Wennberg shot from the point. Pietrangelo got his stick on it, changing the puck's trajectory but not its path, and it went between Allen's legs for the goal.
Allen came back out for the start of the second period, and just over five minutes into the period, Gagner backhanded another one in and that was it for Allen, who this time went down the tunnel to the Blues' room when Hutton came on. It didn't change anything. Thirty-one seconds in, David Savard put in a rebound to make it 5-1 and it just kept going. By the end of the second period, it was 7-2 and Pietrangelo had been on the ice for five of them.
It was the most goals the Blues had allowed this season, and the third time in the past seven games they allowed five or more goals.
