(Jen Lute Costella is Puck Daddy’s analytics writer, breaking down the fanciest of stats for you each week. She's a mom. She's writing for this site. Hence, she calls this slice of stats heaven Puck Momalytics.)

Atop their perch in the Central Division, the St. Louis Blues have gutted out wins in their last two games and hold a one point edge on the second-place Nashville Predators.

Last season, watching the Blues was not all that exciting, to be honest. They had some bright spots, but their style of play was never very flashy in terms of offense. This season, they have become appointment viewing due in large part to some young players who are lighting up the scoreboard. Jaden Schwartz and Jori Lehtera have been putting up points at a merciless pace. Vladimir Tarasenko has become one of the more electrifying young players in the league and seems to score one for the highlight reels in every game.

T.J. Oshie returned from a concussion in the Blues game versus the Predators on Thursday night and got himself onto the score sheet when he lasered a point shot in during a first period Power Play. Paul Stastny, recently activated from the Injured Reserve list, continued to shake the rust off and got himself a goal in the third period to give the Blues the game.

The Blues have only played 16 of their 82 regular season games, but it’s not too early to take a look at how the team is playing and ask whether they can sustain their winning ways. After a few seasons of first round exits in the playoffs, the Blues of course have their sights set on going further this season. No one disputes that they are a good team. Head Coach Ken Hitchcock has refined the team’s defensive systems to the point that they are continually among the league’s best in terms of shot suppression. They may not have the best goaltending in the league, but it is likely good enough to hold the line for them over the regular season because of their stifling defensive work. The thing about the Blues over the last few seasons is that their defense hasn’t really been the problem.

When it comes right down to it, the thing the Blues have sorely lacked when the postseason rolls around is offense.

St. Louis did a pretty good job of trying to be aggressive offensively during the last postseason posting a 60.59 CF60 during the series versus Chicago. After starting the first two games of that series with an On Ice sh% of 10.81% and 16.67% respectively, they posted 0%, 8%, 4.35% and 4.17% marks in the following four games, losses, during 5 on 5 play and ended up going home. Combined with not so great goaltending numbers in the last three games of that series, there wasn’t much they could do and the postseason PDO monster ushered them out. That’s just how the postseason works. The systems that have made you a good team all season are still very important, but the playoffs are also about getting hot at the right time.

The Blues are hot right now in this young season, but everything we’ve learned about how hockey works over the course of a long season says that this will probably go cold. It may well heat back up again for the Blues and if the timing works out, it could lead to good things for them, but there are some problems in the lineup that may make this difficult.

Looking at data from the 2008-09 season through the present, the Blues have been a consistently strong puck possession team. As a team, their sh% right now is a little on the low end of what we’ve seen from them but only by a very small amount. Their goaltending numbers right now (at 5v5) are better than they ever have been (94.85% On Ice Sv%). Their Team Goals For per 60 (2.08 TGF60) is right on the mark for where they have been in the past with their Team Goals Against per 60 the best it’s been during the timeframe we’re working with (1.36 TGA60).

How could any of this be a problem you may ask. The problem is that all of the offense at 5v5 for the Blues is coming from the same place. They’ve definitely dealt with injuries early in the season so they may well start running on all cylinders soon, but at this point, they are really only running on one cylinder, or forward line.

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