Vladimir Tarasenko is really screwing things up here. We’re trying to come up with a nickname for the St. Louis Blues’ top line, which features Braden Schenn between Jaden Schwartz and Tarasenko and he’s not making things easy. Braden and Jaden rhyme and there’s some good alliteration with Schwartz and Schenn, so we have that part covered.

Oh well, we’re open to suggestions. Right now, we’ll just call them The Really, Really Good Line for the St. Louis Blues. Hey, that’s not bad. And neither is that trio, which has produced 21 of the Blues’ 53 goals this season and helped propel them to their second straight week at the top of thn.com’s Power Rankings. Last week’s rankings in parentheses:

THE CREAM OF THE CROP

1. St. Louis Blues (1)



2. San Jose Sharks (10)



3. Nashville Predators (20)



4. Los Angeles Kings (4)



5. New York Rangers (28)



6. Tampa Bay Lightning (2)



7. Montreal Canadiens (21)



8. Winnipeg Jets (12)



9. Pittsburgh Penguins (18)



10. Detroit Red Wings (24)

Summer acquisition Schenn has been in on seven of the Blues’ last nine goals…The Sharks are No. 1 in NHL in shots against, second in penalty killing and faceoffs…Newly acquired Kyle Turris will make his Preds debut Saturday against Pittsburgh…Drew Doughty on the Kings’ start: “I haven’t had this much fun since we won the Stanley Cup”…The Rangers scored three power-play goals in just over six minutes in Monday’s win over Columbus…From the Department of the Inevitable: The Lightning told rookie defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to get an apartment…Carey Who? Charlie Lindgren has given up five goals in his first five career starts…Patrik Laine calls himself out, saying, “it feels like hockey is really hard,” then scores in three straight games…Phil Kessel is on pace for a career-high 68 assists this season…Goaltending matters. Red Wings have won four of past five, given up only nine goals.

THE MUSHY MIDDLE

11. New York Islanders (4)



12. Ottawa Senators (11)



13. Vancouver Canucks (14)



14. Boston Bruins (15)



15. New Jersey Devils (3)



16. Toronto Maple Leafs (17)



17. Washington Capitals (23)



18. Columbus Blue Jackets (7)



19 Vegas Golden Knights (5)



20. Calgary Flames (22)

Josh Bailey had a nine-game point streak snapped in the Islanders overtime loss to Edmonton Tuesday night…With both No. 9 (Bobby Ryan) and 19 (Derrick Brassard) taken, Matt Duchene has opted to wear No. 95 for the Ottawa Senators…You’re a genius if you would have predicted the free-agent signings of Sam Gagner and Thomas Vanek would propel the Canucks to the league’s ninth-best points percentage in early November…Brad Marchand joined the Bruins’ long list of injuries, sitting out a Monday night win over Minnesota with an upper-body injury. He’s expected to sit out a road trip to New York and Toronto, but the Bruins say it’s not a long-term injury. They’d better be right…The Devils have the fourth-best power play in the league, but have had just seven opportunities in the past four games and haven’t scored on one of them…Panic in the Center of the Hockey Universe™. Auston Matthews could miss the first game of his career tonight when the Leafs host Minnesota…Goalie Philipp Grubauer said he’s “sick of f---ing losing,” after a listless 3-2 loss to Buffalo Wednesday night. Grubauer has played all four of the second games of back-to-backs for the Capitals and lost all of them. In his defense, the Capitals have scored only five goals in those games…The Blue Jackets are the youngest team in the league this season. And at times, they’ve looked like it…To say the Flames are top-heavy in scoring would be a huge understatement. Only five forwards have scored goals this season. Eight of them have not.

VYING FOR THE PARTICIPATION BADGE

21. Philadelphia Flyers (16)



22. Anaheim Ducks (9)



23. Colorado Avalanche (19)



24. Chicago Blackhawks (26)



25. Edmonton Oilers (29)



26. Dallas Stars (8)



27. Carolina Hurricanes (25)



28. Buffalo Sabres (30)



29. Minnesota Wild (13)



30. Florida Panthers (27)



31. Arizona Coyotes (31)

The Flyers hope to have rugged defenseman Radko Gudas back in the lineup tomorrow night when they host the Blackhawks…Andrew Cogliano played his 800th consecutive game over the weekend, but the way things are going for the Ducks, it wouldn’t be a surprise if even he got injured…The Avs are off to a respectable start, but now that they’ve traded Matt Duchene and loaded up on youth, might as well go all the way and get a shot at Rasmus Dahlin…The Blackhawks will host another Winter ‘Classic’, this one at Notre Dame. Yawn…A 36-save performance in a 2-1 overtime road win over the Islanders is the Cam Talbot the Oilers thought they’d be seeing a lot more of this season…Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak played left wing on the Stars’ fourth line in their 4-1 loss to Winnipeg Wednesday night…After selling out their home opener, the Hurricanes have averaged just 9,479 per game in the five home games since then…Benoit Pouliot has five goals this season, all of them coming in the past seven games. More impressively, for a guy who has a reputation for taking lots of lazy and dumb penalties, Pouliot has just one minor so far this season…After scoring eight points in his first five games, Chris Stewart goes into tonight’s game against Toronto with no points in seven straight for the Wild…The Panthers have given up at least five goals in six games this season…Has anyone noticed the Coyotes are on pace for 29 points this season? That would be the third-worst total ever for a team that played at least 82 games.

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