Pluses, minuses for Flyers, Blues

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the NBCSN Wednesday Night Rivalry game in his Weekes on the Web blog. Weekes also will assist fans with three must-watch elements of the game.

The Philadelphia Flyers haven't played since Thursday when they were shut out 4-0 by the New Jersey Devils. So you can bet they want to play much better than that in their first game since the Christmas break.
The St. Louis Blues also lost, 5-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, in their most recent game on Thursday, and have lost five of seven.
These are two teams that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season and currently sit in a playoff position. Coming out of the break with a win is always important, which each team will look to do when the Flyers (20-12-4) take on the Blues (18-12-5) at Scottrade Center on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV).
Here's my breakdown of the game:

Flyers

Pluses: All their stars have been stars this season. Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are the top three point producers on the team and haven't really struggled at all this season like we saw last season.
Steve Mason has been outstanding. As he goes, the team goes. He's 14-10-4 with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage. He was a huge reason the Flyers won 10 straight games recently. Mason has grabbed the bull by the horns in the absence of Michal Neuvirth, who's been out with an injury.

The biggest thing for me is the improvement of their defense, which already had Shayne Gostisbehere. He's one of five defensemen on the team who have at least 10 points. The Flyers have generated a lot of offense because of the breakouts of their defensemen.
Minuses: Although Mason arguably has been the Flyers' MVP, they are too dependent on him. It's not fair to have him make save after save and keep them in games, especially when the defense, though it has been great offensively, has been lackluster defensively.
I'd like to see a little more ice time from their fourth line with Chris VandeVelde, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Roman Lyubimov because they can contribute. VandeVelde has five goals and 10 points, and Bellemare and Lyubimov each has four points. Maybe once in a while coach Dave Hakstol could slide down Giroux or Voracek to play with Bellemare.
Lastly, the run that they had with 10 straight wins was great, but it doesn't guarantee them a playoff spot because the Eastern Conference is much improved this season. Even with that, the Flyers are in the second wild-card spot, tied with the Washington Capitals, who have three games in hand on them. The Carolina Hurricanes are seven points behind the Flyers for that spot but have three games in hand.

Blues

Pluses:First of all, the Blues are a much different team at home than on the road. St. Louis is 13-2-4 at Scottrade Center (including a recent 11-0-3 stretch) and 5-10-1 on the road.
Next, Vladimir Tarasenko has had no drop off in terms of production. He has 38 points in 35 games and is on pace for 75-80 points after having at least 37 goals and 73 points in each of the past two seasons. Tarasenko is so dangerous because he only needs one shot to beat you, and now he's become a great passer. It makes it harder to defend against a natural sniper who can also make plays. That's what we're seeing more now in his evolution as a player.

Then there's Jaden Schwartz, who I think is their best playmaker offensively. He has 21 points in 31 games and is often overlooked but he's a huge part of their team and the power play and has three game-winning goals.
The Blues are a four-line team. We've seen some production out of that fourth line with Scottie Upshall, Kyle Brodziak and Ryan Reaves, and I think they need to play those guys a little bit more.
Minuses:The Blues should have more production from their defensemen, based on their skill set. When you look at their pairs (Joel Edmundson and Alex Pietrangelo; Brad Hunt and Kevin Shattenkirk; Jay Bouwmeester and Colton Parayko) you'd think they'd be scoring more. But take out Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk and their defensemen have three goals.
The only other negative right now has been the inability to stay healthy. Health has been a challenge for this team again, as it has for the past few years. However, the Blues found a way to win again despite being without key players at certain points in the season.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. The stars for each team: Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Tarasenko.
   2. How active offensively with the Flyers defense be?
   3. Special teams. How will the Blues penalty kill fare against the Flyers power play? St. Louis ranked second in penalty killing percentage prior to Tuesday and Philadelphia was sixth in power-play percentage.