St. Louis Blues Are Flying Under the Radar

The St. Louis Blues are flying under the radar through the first month of the season despite currently being the second-best team in the league.

Lost in the shuffle behind bigger market teams or previous Stanley Cup champions, the St. Louis Blues find themselves as the best team in the Western Conference and Central Division, as of Oct. 26. The 2017-18 season has seen numerous storylines during the first few weeks of play. However, the 7-2-1 Blues haven’t managed to grab many positive headlines.

The expansion Vegas Golden Knights are capturing lots of attention given their Cinderella-like story through the first month. Meanwhile, the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings are once again looking like the teams that dominated the league for the past decade. The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing their best hockey in over two decades, maybe three.

Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are lighting up the league while putting the Tampa Bay Lightning at the top of the overall standings. Meanwhile, the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions Pittsburgh Penguins are at the top of their division showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

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Despite the early success of all these other franchises, it’s the Blues who find themselves only trailing the Lightning for first overall in the league.

What makes St. Louis’ start to the year more impressive is how they’ve managed to be successful while overcoming injuries. Robby Fabbri was lost for the entire year after injuring his left knee at the end of September.

Patrik Berglund is out until at least December after offseason shoulder surgery. Jay Bouwmeester is yet to play this season while dealing with an ankle injury. Even Alex Steen was forced to miss the first six games of the season.

With an entire line of forwards on the shelf to begin the year the Blues needed players to step up which they found in the form of Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo. Schwartz is having one of the best months of his career with 14 points in 10 games while sitting third overall in the league for goals and points.

Pietrangelo isn’t far behind Schwartz with 12 points while currently outshooting teammate Vladimir Tarasenko. As a result of piling on the shots, Pietrangelo already has four goals and seems likely to break his career-high of 14 goals in a season.

Along with the strong play of Schwartz and Pietrangelo, Tarasenko has produced 11 points in 10 games and Paul Stastny has managed 10 points as well. Newcomer Brayden Schenn has also fit right in with his new team delivering nine points. The Blues took a calculated risk in acquiring him and it appears to be paying off.

For a team missing key forwards while typically being known as a defense-first organization, St. Louis certainly hasn’t struggled to score. The Blues have currently scored the fourth-most goals in the league. They’ve also maintained their defensive play ranking eighth overall for goals-against-average only giving up 2.6 goals-per-game.

With five players averaging a point-per-game or better, it’s hard to imagine how the Blues have slipped under the radar through the first month of action. Perhaps the early injuries had people writing them off as an afterthought in a tough division. Or maybe the recent years of losing quality players such as David Backes, T.J. Oshie, David Perron, and Kevin Shattenkirk had some doubting they’d still be able to compete.

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Whatever the case may be, St. Louis has shown they are no afterthought and deserve just as much attention as anyone else within the league. The defensive-minded Blues filled with gritty forwards and defensemen capable of producing offensively appear ready to cement their status as legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

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