So ... that happened: Blues get dominated by Blue Jackets (UPDATED with Oshie news)

UPDATE: From the Twitter feed of Jeremy Rutherford:

 

According to Blues coach Davis Payne, forward T.J. Oshie has suffered a broken ankle, which will require surgery.

Well isn't that just delightful. And now back to your venting session.

***

If you watched all 60 minutes of tonight's game, you deserve a medal.

After back-to-back wins against Boston and the Rangers, the Blues were riding high. The Blues were 9-1-2 and everyone was singing the praises of the plucky young team that could. And then the wheels fell off.

For sixty minutes against Columbus, the Blues did absolutely nothing right. The offense didn't forecheck like it has been doing, the defense looked atrocious and just stood around. Jaroslav Halak and Ty Conklin looked more like Hannu Toivonen and Patrick Lalime.

Oh and T.J. Oshie skated off the ice and couldn't put weight on his knee. He fell awkwardly and it did not look good. I'm not a doctor, but it looks like he's going to be out for a bit. If we as fans are lucky, he's out a handful of games. But, and let's be honest—this is the Blues, he probably tore his ACL and will be out for the year. * See above

Just about everything that could go wrong, did. The depleted d-corp, missing half of the opening day top-6 finally looked shaky. The offense, missing Perron and featuring a host of slow starters, continued to struggle. The only goal was scored by B.J. Crombeen and that's just not going to get it done.

From my perch on the couch, the Blues looked like shit for 60 minutes. It looked a lot like last year—the Blues bought the hype and praise and thought less than 100 percent effort would get the job done. Guess what, with a team this depleted, 100 percent is needed every night.

The positive: It's one game. The Blues are now 9-2-2. I guarantee just about every fan base in the NHL would take that record. And, in my experience, blow out losses are better for the losing team. When you get absolutely embarrassed—like the Blues did tonight—you have to take some time to reevaluate everything. Hopefully, a game like this will sharpen the focus for the team. Maybe the D will play a little harder, maybe the PP will finally wake up.

Whatever the case may be, the Blues can't think about this too long. Nashville is in town on Thursday. The Blues can't afford another game like tonight.