Although he's not ready to call this St. Louis Blues team a playoff contender yet, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic does believe this is a better team than what we saw the first few months of the season. St. Louis is three points out of a playoff spot with just over 30 games left on the schedule and JR admits he may have been wrong when he wrote the Blues off a few weeks ago.
"I'm not ready to say they've turned the corner," Rutherford says. "I think a week or two ago we felt like they had gained some traction, but I think you didn't want to get ahead of yourself. I think they've got a pretty good feel about things."
Vladimir Taransenko has five goals and three assist in his last eight games and the Blues goaltending battle is going to be very interesting to watch down the final stretch of the season.
If it were up to Rutherford, he says he'd start the rookie Jordan Binnington over Jake Allen this Saturday and give the youngest a bulk of the starts as St. Louis returns from the All-Star break.
"He's started seven of the last 10 games leading up to the break, he's played well, he's earned it," Rutherford says. "This team can't afford to lose points and Jake Allen has had his opportunity and at times he's played O.K. but just hasn't don enough to earn that."
The Blues beat writer joined our Chris Hrabe on last night's Sports Open Line talking about his recent work for The Athletic: