The good news is that Jaroslav Halak had a nice night on Tuesday. He stopped 30 pucks on 31 shots to help the St. Louis Blues past the Florida Panthers on the road after missing some games with an injury suffered during the snowstorm-that-kind-of-was. The bad news is that another round of NHL Power Rankings has come out, and things don't look so great. The Blues fall another spot on the SB Nation Power Rankings to 13th in the Western Conference, with only the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Edmonton Oilers between them and oblivion.
↵They did this without playing much of last week, which says something either about our power rankings or the Blues' capacity to inspire since that brief period when they stood on top of the NHL among those of us with short memories.
↵Last night against the Panthers, though—that's all according to plan. Real Live NHL All-Star David Backes scores a goal, Halak is nearly perfect, Andy McDonald shows up on the part of the game recap that isn't devoted to injury rehabbing, and they win a low-scoring affair. Aside from the place on the list it's a lot like the formula that brought them their early successes. So there's that.