That three-game winning streak, skimpy as some of those wins were, gave St. Louis Blues fans reason enough to be optimistic that the team's three-week-long slide from atop the NHL Power Rankings and the Western Conference standings was finally arrested, but the slide continued last week, culminating in two straight come-from-ahead losses to the Dallas Stars. The Blues now find themselves fourth in the tough Central Division with 27 points—behind the Detroit Red Wings (32), the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Chicago Blackhawks (28), who they'll be playing tonight, in Chicago.
↵In the Western Conference things aren't any more attractive. After stopping briefly at fifth in the conference they've slid to seventh—which, admittedly, is as far away from the other division champs as it is from the ninth-place Los Angeles Kings. Unlike in the East, there aren't yet many haves or have-nots; only two teams have more regulation losses than they do wins.
↵The Blues still have plenty of time to turn things around, but turn things around they must—nobody wants to be on the shaken-out side when this heretofore-egalitarian conference finally shakes things out.
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