The Red Wings (11-20-4) were outscored 12-1 during the streak, including 7-1 by the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
"These guys care and they were embarrassed by the Nashville game," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "They showed up yesterday and worked their tails off at practice, and they showed up today and worked their tails off during the game. Now they have to do it again tomorrow against the same team."
The teams play again here Sunday.
Pickard won his first NHL game since Nov. 23, 2018, when he shut out the New York Rangers 4-0 for the Philadelphia Flyers. Since then, he was 0-7-0 in 12 games for the Flyers and Red Wings.
"Obviously, my games at this level have been few and far between in the past few years, but I know I'm still capable of playing at this level," the 28-year-old said. "It helped that I got to play the last 50 minutes of the Nashville game, even though you never want to have a game like that, and I was able to get one game in down in Grand Rapids (of the American Hockey League)."
Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves for the Blue Jackets (13-14-8), who lost a third straight game.
"It's a mystery," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "I said before this trip that we were going to find out a lot about this team and these individuals. .. I saw some terrific things out of certain people today and I saw some things that were terrible with others."
Adam Erne gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 8:29 of the first period, and Robby Fabbri made it 2-0 at 8:58.
"We've really been struggling to score, and then we get two goals in [29] seconds," Pickard said. "You always want to play with a lead in this game, and we were able to do that all day."
The Blue Jackets had five shots in the first period.
"That was shocking," Columbus captain Nick Foligno said. "We haven't played like that in a long time, so I wish I had some answers. It wasn't acceptable."
