Pluses, minuses for Blues-Red Wings, Penguins-Avalanche

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the NBCSN "Wednesday Night Hockey" game in his Weekes on the Web blog.

We have another doubleheader this week on "Wednesday Night Hockey." The St. Louis Blues (8-11-3) play the Detroit Red Wings (10-11-3) at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN) before the Pittsburgh Penguins (10-8-5) face the Colorado Avalanche (14-6-4) at Pepsi Center (9:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, ATTSN-PT).
Here's my breakdown of the games:

Blues

Pluses: Center Ryan O'Reilly has been all that St. Louis could have hoped for when general manager Doug Armstrong acquired him in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres on July 1. O'Reilly leads the Blues in goals (12), points (26) and plus/minus rating (plus-6), and he's second in the NHL in face-off winning percentage (60.4) among players who've taken at least 100 face-offs. He plays in all situations and makes the Blues a better team.
Goalie Jake Allen struggled to start the season but has allowed eight goals in his past five starts (2-3-0) and looks much sharper. A slow start to the season has created some ice time for some of the younger players, mainly forward Robert Thomas, who has seven points (one goal, six assists) in 18 games.

Minuses: You don't know what you are getting from them on a night-to-night basis. The Blues played their best game of the season in a 6-2 win against the Nashville Predators on Friday, but followed that by allowing eight goals, including five on five shots by forward Patrik Laine, in an 8-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. You must be able to put together a string of good efforts and St. Louis has not done that.
Several key veterans have underperformed. Forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who has scored at least 33 goals in each of the past four seasons, has seven in 22 games; forward Brayden Schenn, who scored an NHL career-high 28 goals last season, has five in 18 games. Besides O'Reilly and Tarasenko, David Perron (six) is the only other Blues player with more than five goals.

Red Wings

Pluses: Detroit has gotten good goaltending from Jimmy Howard, who is 7-6-3 with a 2.68 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage in 17 games. He's allowed two goals or fewer in six of his past seven starts.
The Red Wings also are getting contributions from young players. Forward Andreas Athanasiou, 24, leads them with 10 goals (15 points), and forward Anthony Mantha, 24, is tied for second with nine goals. Rookie Dennis Cholowski, 20, leads Red Wings defensemen with 12 points (four goals, eight assists). Center Dylan Larkin, who has a Detroit-best 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) has improved his game greatly and is making better decisions this season.

Minuses: Theyentered the season in a rebuilding mode after missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the past two seasons following a streak of 25 straight postseason appearances. Detroit started the season 0-5-2 and had one win in its first 10 games (1-7-2) but has rebounded nicely. However, that hasn't left much room for error, and they've lost three straight (0-2-1).
The Red Wings don't have an elite game-breaker, someone who can take over a game. Larkin could be that player but isn't there yet. Athanasiou has some tools and does it occasionally but not consistently enough on a game-to-game basis.

Penguins

Pluses: Goalies Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry have played well in the absence of Matt Murray, who is out with a lower-body injury. DeSmith has a 2.41 GAA, .924 save percentage and two shutouts; Jarry made 35 saves in his only NHL start this season, a 2-1 overtime loss at the Boston Bruins on Friday.
Forwards Evgeni Malkin (30 points), Phil Kessel (28 points) and Sidney Crosby (25 points) continue to score and do what is expected of them. Any one of them is capable of taking over any moment of any game at any time. Having one player like that is beneficial, but the Penguins have three.

Minuses: Injuries are taking a toll on the Penguins. DefensemanJustin Schultz (broken left leg) is a big loss for them offensively and defensively. Forward Patric Hornqvist is out with a concussion, and they have missed his net-front presence. Murray has not played well this season, but I still view him as one of the better goalies in the NHL. But he has to find a way to get stronger and avoid injuries if he is going to be a true No. 1 and play as much as they expect him to.
Looking ahead to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, should they get there, I don't know if they are strong enough to compete with the Washington Capitals, especially on the defensive side. They are on a 3-0-2 run but are 3-7-3 in their past 13 games and have allowed at least four goals seven times during that stretch. That defensive trend can't continue if they expect to make it the playoffs and go on a run.

Avalanche

Pluses: It all starts with the top line: Gabriel Landeskog (26 points), Nathan MacKinnon (37 points) and Mikko Rantanen (40 points) have combined for 103 points. Nobody has any answers for them and no one has been able to shut them down consistently. They are the most dynamic line in the NHL right now.
Goalies Semyon Varlamov (9-5-2, 2.32 GAA, .927 save percentage) and Philipp Grubauer (5-1-2, 3.07 GAA, .907 save percentage) have been good, as has the defense, for the most part. The Avalanche are sixth in goals-against average at 2.75.

Minuses: Secondary scoring has been a big problem. Colorado is way too reliant on that top line and to a lesser extent, its top-six forwards. If the top line has an off night, the Avalanche probably aren't going to win.
Sometimes they don't start games on time. The Avalanche are a good come-from-behind team, but you never really want to be in the position of having to play catch-up. Colorado needs to be ready from the opening face-off and not be chasing the game.