It's been a rough few weeks for the St. Louis Blues. The team has been throttled by injuries, Jaroslav Halak has been spotty and, startlingly enough, unable to solve the team's offensive problems, and concussions have done some terrible things to their starters, most recently Andy McDonald, who was leading the team in goals. The end result is that after their torrid start to the season they've rattled off two five-game losing streaks in 14 games, the last one ending Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks. The Power Rankings, predictably, have noticed this.
↵Despite the Blues currently sitting last in the relatively strong Central Division, SB Nation has been charitable this week, ranking them seventh in the Western Conference, an improvement of three spots from last week. The panelists were split, placing them anywhere from sixth (our Minnesota Wild and, surprisingly enough Detroit Red Wings bloggers) to 11th (Dirk Hoag of the Nashville Predators' On The Forecheck.)
↵ESPN is rapidly losing patience with the former top dogs. The Blues fall another four spots this week to 21 in the NHL, sandwiched between two sub-.500 clubs in the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes. Only Fox Sports seems to be clinging to Blues hope, ranking them 14th this week, but it might be inertia—they still had them as high as eighth in the league last week.
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