The Blue Jackets have had more meetings this season than a business park full of middle managers.

The latest was on Friday, the morning after a sobering 4-1 loss to Los Angeles in Nationwide Arena. The topic?

"We've been searching for our identity," forward R.J. Umberger said. "That's what our objective is now, to get back to our identity.

"Whether we make the playoffs of not, there's a bigger picture here. We have to let other teams in this league know that we're a hard-working team they have to show up against, just like we were last season."

The Blue Jackets looked like their 2008-09 version on Saturday night in the Scottrade Center, beating the St. Louis Blues 3-2 in overtime.

But during a 10-20-7 plunge since Nov. 19, the Blue Jackets have been a long way off from the identity they forged last season as a hard-skating, hard-checking, resilient club with an imposing goaltender.

That 10-week slide has more than likely cost them a spot in the playoffs. The Blue Jackets (53 points) are nine points behind Calgary and Detroit for eighth in the Western Conference.

Coach Ken Hitchcock said the coaching staff and players emerged from Friday's meeting with "a pact that we're going to respond the balance of the year and see where this goes."

But, speaking after Saturday's game, Hitchcock didn't agree that the Blue Jackets had fallen prey to identity theft.

"It's hard to have an identity when you're playing catch-up all the time, and we've played catch-up a lot this season," Hitchcock said. "We're grinding it, and we'll see where we go.

"It's nice to see some pluses (in the plus-minus ratings) on the score sheet for everybody, and it was sure nice to finally hit that team (St. Louis) in their building."

The Blue Jackets went into the game having lost eight straight in St. Louis.

Off the hook

Rick Nash was called for interference with 2:51 remaining in regulation, leading to a Blues power-play goal by Andy McDonald with 1:35 remaining to force overtime.

It was an odd play, and it took a few seconds for the officials to realize that there was an infraction.

Nash skated into the path of a Blues player's glove, which had fallen to the ice. He flipped it in the direction of Blues forward Keith Tkachuk, who had to maneuver around it on his way up the ice.

By the NHL rulebook (rules 53.2 and 56.2), that's interference.

"It was such a natural reaction for me just to move that glove out of the way," Nash said.

"It's one of those things you don't feel great about, but we got great individual efforts by Matty (goaltender Mathieu Garon) and Russ (defenseman Kris Russell, who scored the winning goal) to save me."

Slap shots

Russell's goal was his first winner since Dec. 29, 2008, against Los Angeles. Derek Dorsett's goal at 4:09 of the first period was his first goal since Oct. 30. He has missed 27 games because of injury this season. Before Saturday's win, the Blue Jackets had lost six of their previous seven games decided in overtime or by shootout.

aportzline@dispatch.com