Pluses: Jordan Binnington was named the NHL Rookie of the Month for March and it was just another accolade for the goalie, who's won the award two months in a row and had an excellent season. He's 22-5-1 with a 1.85 goals-against average, .928 save percentage and five shutouts. He's confident, patient and has been dominant since January. I'm blown away by his game right now.
Ryan O'Reilly has been the most consistent St. Louis Blues player right from the outset of the season, offensively and defensively. The veteran center leads the team with 74 points (27 goals, 47 assists) and is plus-23. O'Reilly has also won more than 57 percent of his face-offs and plays a 200-foot-game in all situations.
Craig Berube has turned this team around. He's gotten the most out of everybody in the group since taking over as coach for Mike Yeo on Nov. 19. The Blues have gone 36-19-5 since he took over and I think he needs to be a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.
Minuses: They didn't start the season on time. St. Louis, who was a popular pick to win the Stanley Cup after acquiring O'Reilly in the offseason, won two of its first nine games and nine of its first 26. It took them a while to find their identity and commit to defense. Once they did those things, the turned their season around. Those points lost early in the season could come back to haunt them now as far as winning the division and having home ice in the first round are concerned.
The Blues don't really have a game breaker that can take a game over like the Blackhawks have in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Vladimir Tarasenko has 31 goals, but he's gotten most of them in spurts.
