Weekend Takeaways: Don’t count out those pesky Blues just yet

When trade talk really picked up in late January and early February, we wondered if the teetering St. Louis Blues would tip and fall into some kind of retool. Now, halfway through March, the Blues are on the edge of a playoff spot, charging hard at the teams above them.

The Blues’ most recent work saw them dunking all over Anaheim and Minnesota, beating Minny 5-1 on Saturday and destroying the Ducks 7-2 just 24 hours later to make their weekend margin of victory a cool 12-3. St. Louis now has the same number of points (73) as the Vancouver Canucks squad that sits in the second wild-card spot and has played one fewer game than St. Louis. Oh by the way, the Blues are also only six points behind the scuffling Wild for the first wild-card spot.

Although the team is rolling, there’s been no shortage of transition born of tumult in Missouri the past couple years. St. Louis has missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, which is one more time than it whiffed on the post-season in a 10-year period from 2012 to 2022.

This is the second straight campaign the Blues have made an in-season coaching change and everything that happens around the team occurs with the knowledge that Doug Armstrong — the longest-tenured general manager in the league — is handing off the GM duties to Alex Steen in the summer of 2026.

When we broke for the 4 Nations Face-Off on Feb. 10, St. Louis was eight points out of a playoff spot and trending the wrong way with a 6-9-1 record in its previous 16 games.

What a difference an international tournament where your goalie steals the show can make.

OK, so Jordan Binnington really had only one spectacular game at the 4 Nations, but he picked the most important one to shine. And, to be fair, it’s not as though Binnington has been on fire since leading Canada to a win over Team USA: in eight games since the break, Binnington has a .904 save percentage.

A bunch of other Blues, though, have definitely been hitting the high notes since the 4 Nations ended.

Brayden Schenn, the player most often rumoured to be on the move when we thought St. Louis could sell hard, has five goals — including one on Sunday versus the Ducks — and six assists for and 11 points in a dozen games since play resumed after the break.

Jordan Kyrou was at the centre of the weekend scoring, popping a hat trick against Minnesota and dropping three apples on Anaheim. In fact, seven Blues are playing at or near a point-per-game pace since the 4 Nations, from Robert Thomas (14 points in 12 games) to defenceman Cam Fowler (10 points in 11 contests).

The latter has been a revelation in St. Louis since being picked up just after his 33^rd birthday in December, not long after Jim Montgomery took over from the deposed Drew Bannister as coach. Fowler is playing a tick over 22 minutes a night for the Blues and has 24 points in 37 games — a 53-point pace — with St. Louis.

Of course, the big off-season story was St. Louis successfully leveraging offer sheets to snag Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg from the Oilers. Broberg is playing 20 minutes per game in the Blues’ top four, while Holloway has been an absolute monster for St. Louis, recording 43 points in 46 games since late November.

As a team, the Blues have a .750 points percentage since the break, driven by a suddenly surging offence that is tied with the high-flying Washington Capitals for tops in the NHL during that time at 3.92 goals per game. Heading into the 4 Nations, St. Louis was scoring 2.70 goals per game, good for 27^th in the league.

Much of this has come against the backdrop of the Blues losing a top defenceman in Colton Parayko, who played seven games with St. Louis after winning the 4 Nations with Canada and injured his left knee in a March 5 game versus the Kings.

If Parayko plays again this season, it will likely have to be in the post-season. And the way the Blues have been scoring, that suddenly looks like a real possibility.

Weekend Takeaways

• St. Louis’ .750 points percentage since the 4 Nations is the third-best mark in the league; Colorado’s .773 is No. 2 and the top number is the .800 showing (7-1-2) by the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs — who had one win in nine games going into the break — have climbed right back into the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff chase thanks in large part to the play of their captain, Nick Suzuki. Though he was held off the scoresheet in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Florida, Suzuki’s 17 points in 10 games since the 4 Nations trail only one man — Leon Draisaitl and his 18 in 12 — for the most in the NHL during that span. “Slick Nick” has stepped up in a big way.

• How do you put a five-game losing streak behind you? By ripping off five consecutive wins, of course. The Kings — who stumbled through five straight losses, from Feb. 26 to March 5 — beat Nashville 1-0 in overtime on Saturday to record their fifth win in a row. The game also marked Darcy Kuemper’s second straight whitewash, as the goalie now has an outrageous .969 save percentage in his past five outings. Equally scorching, Quinton Byfield tallied the extra-time winner against the Preds to run his goal-scoring streak to a half-dozen games. If Byfield, after scoring just 11 goals in his first 59 games, is coming alive, this club is going to be even less fun to play. Los Angeles is now engaged in a battle for second place in the Pacific Division with Edmonton and home-ice advantage would mean a lot for the Kings, who — with the win over Nashville — boast a league-best .833 points percentage (23-3-4) in their own barn.

The Week Ahead

• The NHL’s general managers are meeting on Monday and Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, one topic for discussion could be the toll the schedule has on players, especially with a number of international tournaments on tap in future winters.

• The Leafs will be clad in their best St. Patrick’s Day greens on Monday, as they welcome in the Calgary Flames. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Kings will go for their sixth straight win.

• Tuesday brings a huge tilt in the Eastern Conference wild-card race as the Sens are in Montreal to battle Montreal. A win would mark the Sens’ seventh straight victory and have them feeling extremely good about locking down a post-season berth. Later that night, the Oilers will welcome in Utah Hockey Club and see if Leon Draisaitl can record his 50^th goal of the year.

• The East’s top two clubs do battle in D.C. on Saturday, as the Panthers come to town for a date with the Caps.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Winnipeg Jets (47-17-4) With a huge win Friday night over Dallas and two more points Sunday night in Seattle, the Jets have all but locked up the top seed in the Western Conference. Now it’s just a matter of duking it out with the Capitals for the Presidents’ Trophy, an award the Jets have never won in either the 1.0 or 2.0 eras.

2. Edmonton Oilers (39-24-4) Corey Perry picked up his 15^th goal of the season during Sunday’s 3-1 win versus the Rangers at MSG. Not bad for a guy who turns 40 in mid-May.

3. Toronto Maple Leafs (39-24-3) Since Jan. 1, the Leafs rank 17^th in shots per game (27.8) and 25^th in shots allowed (29.1).

4. Ottawa Senators (36-25-5) Following a 60-minute win in Toronto on Saturday, the Sens conversation has shifted from making the playoffs to overtaking the Leafs (or Tampa) for third place in the Atlantic. Ottawa has 77 points in 66 games, while Toronto and Tampa have 81 in the same number of contests.

5. Montreal Canadiens (32-27-7) As was the case last season, Juraj Slafkovsky has really come alive in the second half. After snagging an assist in Saturday’s win over Florida, the big Slovak has six goals and six helpers for 12 points in his past 11 games.

6. Vancouver Canucks (31-25-11) After hosting Winnipeg on Tuesday, the Canucks set out on a six-game roadie that will go a long way in determining their playoff fate. Vancouver’s .576 points percentage away from home is the sixth-best mark in the league, so we’ll see if its success as the visitors continues.

7. Calgary Flames (30-24-11) The Flames hold games in hand on everyone around them, but are suddenly two points behind both Vancouver — which holds the final wild-card spot in the West — and ninth-place St. Louis. Utah has also pulled even with the Flames on 71 points. Calgary has to come up big during a four-game road swing that kicks off Monday night in Toronto. 

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