At quarter marker, Blues would be playoff team if season ended today; will they be at the end

Well, in the next 10 games, they've gone 6-4-0 after Sunday's 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks, so a slight improvement record- and point-wise (12). 

At 23 points, the Blues are again, in an OK position but not much margin for error. But it beats where they were last year at this time. 

Remember, by now, they had already endured an eight-game losing streak followed by a seven-game winning streak. Talk about peaks and valleys, they lived it in the first quarter of the season.

So let's take a look at some of the good and some of the not-so-good through the first 20 games of the season:

* GOOD

-- The goals-against have dropped nearly a half a goal per game from last season to 3.05, which is 15th in the league; they were 27th last season after 20 games allowing 3.5 goals per game. The 3.05 has gone up in recent games, which can be flagged as alarming, but nonetheless, it has improved and the team must stick to that concept of playing defense first in a new defensive system under new assistant coach Mike Weber.

-- Goal scoring, after a rough go early, has actually improved to 2.95 per game, which would tie the Blues for 20th in the league; last season, they were 25th at 2.8 per game. 

-- Although the goaltending has slipped overall in the past 10 games, it has been a major contributor to the start of this season overall. Jordan Binnington (6-5-1) has played in 15 of the 20 games (13 starts) and is carrying a decent 2.89 goals-against average but after starting off with a robust save percentage, it's still at an OK .909 percentage, and Joel Hofer (5-3-0) has been up and down in his first full season in the NHL with a GAA (3.03) that he'd like to see lower and a save percentage of .905 could use an uptick as well. But overall, he's given them more stability in that role than what veteran Thomas Greiss was able to provide in his only season as Binnington's backup last year.

-- Scoring first has been a godsend for the Blues. They're a perfect 10-0-0 when they open the scoring, 9-1-0 when scoring three or more goals and 10-0-1 when allowing three or fewer goals. 

-- The penalty kill has made a marked improvement, although they'd tell you it can be better, but it's at 78.9 percent overall, good for 16th in the league when it was woefully bad at this time, 30th in the league at 67.4 percent. Even better, the Blues are second in road penalty kill behind Dallas, killing 26 of 28 shorthanded chances (92.8 percent). And even better from a PK perspective, it's playing with more aggression, anticipating plays and as a result, it's tied with the Stars for most shorthanded goals with six.

-- Robert Thomas has so far lived up to the big contract (eight years, $65 million, $8.125 million average annual value) that kicked in this season. He's at more than a point-per-game player, the only Blue averaging more than a point per game with 22 (eight goals, 14 assists), which would put him at a career-high 89 points for the season over an 82-game schedule.

Thomas has assumed the role as the No. 1 center, with Ryan O'Reilly handing him the throne after O'Reilly was traded late last season and not signed in the summer and has drastically improved his face-off numbers to a career-high 56.6 percent and is averaging also a career-best 20:00 ice time per game.

-- After a rough start (stat-wise) to the season, Pavel Buchnevich is on a burner, and the Blues need it.

The Russian winger started the season with a goal and three assists in his first 10 games, at one point after a loss calling his play "awful." Since then, he's rattled off 12 points (seven goals, five assists) his past eight games and continues to play the a solid two-way game and has been a stalwart on special teams with four of the team's six power-play goals and two shorthanded markers and is up to 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in 18 games.

-- Someone keep flaming Jake Neighbours, because the 21-year-old is on fire.

With five goals in his past five games, Neighbours all of the sudden sits just one off the team lead (Thomas and Buchnevich) and in a span of a week, has catapulted himself onto the top line, and deservedly so.

Neighbours, 21, a 2020 first-round pick, has already surpassed his career high in goals (six in 43 games last season) in his first 20 games and has impressed the coaching staff with his tenacity, grit, willingness to play in the dirty areas, including in and around the net. It's where he's making his living these days and maybe, just maybe he's found his way and path to what will lead to a solid NHL career.

-- Without going into a ton of detail on other individuals, others that have started off the season strong/better than last year include defensemen Colton Parayko and Torey Krug, whose defense has improved; defenseman Justin Faulk is playing his usual solid defensive game, although he hasn't scored yet; forward Kasperi Kapanen has eight points (three goals, five assists) in 20 games but has been a solid two-way player and skating well; Oskar Sundqvist and Alexey Toropchenko are playing really well on the fourth line. Bringing back Sundqvist has been quite the get the for Blues thus far. 

* NOT-SO-GOOD/NEEDS TO BE BETTER

-- We're not putting lipstick on a pig here ... although the power play has shown some light pulses in recent games, it's been downright horrendous this season. The Blues have spent much of the season either 31st or 32nd with the man advantage but have managed to move up to 30th at 9.8 percent (6-for-61). The silver lining: they've scored the past two games on it for the first time this season, so baby steps, right? It simply has to get better for this season to stay afloat.

-- The inconsistent play hasn't leveled off yet, and it took until the 18th game for the Blues to finally play in a game where there has been a lead change. This group hasn't been successful when falling behind, and that's where coach Craig Berube wants to see improved play, because he's said in the most recent past that when the Blues fall behind 1-0, 2-0, they want to try and catch the game back up on the next shift instead of playing the game out and their deficits grow larger.

Also part of the inconsistency, if you discount the first two games that were decided by shootouts, only two Blues games this season (Nov. 9 vs. Arizona and Nov. 22 at Arizona) were games decided by one goal. Either the Blues win big or they lose big. That doesn't seem sustainable for a team if they have playoff aspirations.

The Blues are 5-7-0 in games decided by three goals or more, which is absurd only 20 games in.

-- Individually, Jordan Kyrou led the Blues with 37 goals last season, and although points-wise (13) he's been OK, he's really struggling putting the puck in. He has just four goals and is on pace for just 17, and although he started the season much-improved on the defensive side of the puck, he's shown some regression lately simply trying to do too much with pucks trying to score. The Blues will need his offense to kick into gear, and fans will continue to expect plenty since he, like Thomas, had his long-term contract (eight years, $65 million, $8.125 million AAV) kick in this season.

It's been an inconsistent start for captain Brayden Schenn, who is a minus-9 through 20 games; it's also been a mixed start for newcomer Kevin Hayes, who has picked it up with a point in three of his past four games, but 33 percent of his nine points came in a 4-1 win over New Jersey on Nov. 3; Brandon Saad's plus-5 is strong, but he has just three goals in 20 games and the Blues need more; Jakub Vrana has been a healthy scratch four times this season for inconsistent play and while I understand fans clamoring for the talented skater and shooter to play with more playmakers, two goals in 16 games won't cut it. The Blues need Vrana to heat up, and soon. He's getting the chance, at least for the time being, to play up in the top six, and the Blues can hope he catches some fire moving forward.

-- There have been some guys that have reflected the team's inconsistent play throughout the lineup, guys who have looked really good in some games and not so good in others. Nick Leddy, Marco Scandella and Sammy Blais are among those in this category for me.  

The bottom line, last time I checked, teams don't make the playoffs in the minus category in goals for and goals against. Right now, the Blues are minus-2 and that'll have to get better. But in order to do that, the drastic outcomes of games will have to level out. As was mentioned earlier, it's not constructive to go out and win big one game and get blown out the next. 

So again, are the Blues a playoff team playing as they have through the first 20 games? I don't think so. So while the benchmark is typically if you're in a good position on or around Thanksgiving, you'll be there in the end, but it's hard to figure out this Blues squad right now. There have been some impressive wins (Colorado, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Seattle), even a season-opening 2-1 shootout loss at Dallas was a good game, but there also have been some really discouraging losses (Vancouver, Colorado, Winnipeg, San Jose(!), Los Angeles, Nashville).