Power Rankings: Goaltending keeps Blues on an upswing

Updated Dec. 10

There won't be any celebrations this week for Andy Murray's first anniversary as St. Louis Blues coach, but maybe there should be.

The Blues were 7-17-4 and going nowhere when Murray replaced Mike Kitchen last Dec. 11, but they finished 27-18-9 and this season have become one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

Offseason pickup Paul Kariya leads the Blues with 26 points. (AP)

St. Louis fell short of the playoffs last spring but with a 16-10-1 record (10-3 at home), it is in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race among all the other teams that seem to have lost sight of the Red Wings before Christmas.

The unfortunate thing for St. Louis is being in the same division as Detroit, which is running away from the pack in the overall standings, so a top playoff seed will be tough to come by.

The Blues have work to do with other division rivals like Chicago and Nashville, who are playing well and making the Central far more competitive than it has been in years. Right now they are in good shape with more points per game than any of the West's other top contenders and with games and points to make up on everyone they are chasing.

Still, St. Louis is one of several teams suffering from severe offensive challenges, ranked near the bottom in goals per game, although Brad Boyes has scored 17 times. Free agent Paul Kariya and repatriated veteran Keith Tkachuk have contributed their share on offense, but the Blues have been winning with strong defense, the best penalty killing in the league and big efforts from Manny Legace, who is out with a knee injury, and Hannu Toivonen between the pipes.

"Our goaltending has been very good this season," Murray said.

If nothing else, that's something every coach would celebrate.

Here are this week's rankings:

Power Rankings
Current		Team	Previous
	1	Sharks · Trends	1
	The Sharks power play is starting to come alive of late with eight goals in its last 15 tries.
	2	Red Wings · Trends	2
	The league's top offense is helping Detroit overcome allowing more than one extra goal per game than last season.
	3	Rangers · Trends	7
	Offense from the defense. The Rangers top six blue liners have contributed eight goals and 47 points this season.
	4	Penguins · Trends	8
	Newcomer Philippe Boucher will provide an offensive boost to a back end that is in need of it because of injuries to key players.
	5	Bruins · Trends	11
	Who said the Bruins can't put the puck in the net? Boston has outscored opponents 31-15 and gone 8-1-1 in its last 10 games.
	6	Wild · Trends	5
	Minnesota penalty killers are the best in the league, keeping opponents from scoring on more than 93 percent of their chances.
	7	Capitals · Trends	9
	Ovechkin has started looking like himself again and Nicklas Backstrom has been on fire lately with 10 points in his last five games.
	8	Canucks · Trends	12
	Vancouver hits the road after a great 4-1-1 home stand, which saw the Canucks allow only one even-strength goal.
	9	Ducks · Trends	4
	The post-Brian Burke era begins with new GM Bob Murray needing to immediately plug the hole left by defenseman Francois Beauchemin's long term injury.
	10	Canadiens · Trends	3
	Montreal has played some of its worst hockey of the season in the last couple of weeks. The power play has connected only twice in its last 36 chances.
	11	Blackhawks · Trends	10
	Not so good in tight situations. Chicago won nearly 60 percent of its one-goal games last season, but has only one victory in eight tries this time.
	12	Sabres · Trends	6
	Jason Pominville has started to find his offensive game, but the Sabres are struggling with four losses in five games and seven in the last 10.
	13	Flyers · Trends	17
	Simon Gagne, with 11 goals in 16 games, is the NHL's comeback player of the year so far.
	14	Flames · Trends	13
	Is Mike Keenan the next coach to go? Calgary fans have been openly calling for his head at games.
	15	Predators · Trends	22
	The best remedy for a slump is a trip to California where the Preds stopped a slide by winning three straight games.
	16	Oilers · Trends	16
	Dustin Penner, Kyle Brodziak, Robert Nilsson, Fernando Pisani, Andrew Cogliano, and Marc Pouliot also have five or fewer points and eight or fewer penalty minutes. So what exactly have they been doing so far?
	17	Blue Jackets · Trends	21
	Key offseason acquisition R.J. Umberger is finally paying dividends after a scoreless October. Umberger has seven goals in eight November games.
	18	Hurricanes · Trends	14
	Eric Staal is in a pretty deep swoon these days with only one assist in his last seven games.
	19	Devils · Trends	15
	The Devils have two of the game's best defensive forwards in John Madden and Jay Pandolfo, but they're a combined minus-8 this season.
	20	Avalanche · Trends	23
	The Avs feel the absence of Joe Sakic, with only six goals in the four games since he was injured.
	21	Maple Leafs · Trends	24
	The Leafs power play hasn't been bad this season, but it hasn't taken advantage of its best opportunities, going scoreless in 14 tries at 5-on-3.
	22	Senators · Trends	18
	GM Bryan Murray isn't hiding the fact he's working the phones hard to shake up his fast-fading team.
	23	Thrashers · Trends	27
	So much for the sophomore slump. Bryan Little has scored as many points in his first 16 games as he did in 48 last season.
	24	Panthers · Trends	26
	The offense continues to struggle although newcomers Keith Ballard and Cory Stillman have produced more than most.
	25	Stars · Trends	20
	It's getting uglier by the week in Dallas where the fingers are being pointed more frequently by a team that has no solution in sight.
	26	Coyotes · Trends	25
	Phoenix has a tough time coming from behind, with a 1-5 record so far when trailing after the first period.
	27	Kings · Trends	28
	Erik Ersberg is giving the Kings some pretty good goaltending with a 1.96 GAA and a .910 save percentage in seven starts.
	28	Blues · Trends	29
	Lee Stempniak has 10 points in his last six games after managing only one point in six games to begin the season.
	29	Islanders · Trends	30
	Keeping things respectable. In his past eight starts, backup goalie Joey MacDonald is 4-2-2 and has allowed only 19 goals.
	30	Lightning · Trends	19
	The chemical imbalance hasn't been solved by the firing of Barry Melrose. The question now is who goes next?