from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

They aren’t in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, but they haven’t fallen far off the pace either.

Interim coach Craig Berube has made some progress with the group, but not enough to earn the job on a permanent basis.

They subtracted players who are either currently out of the NHL (Scottie Upshall, Patrik Berglund, Chris Thorburn) or failing to produce elsewhere (Vladimir Sobotka, Dmitrij Jaskin, Kyle Brodziak, Tage Thompson). Key additions Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron are performing at peak levels and Tyler Bozak has chipped in.

Yet this team is worse than last season’s version.

They have many established, well-respected veterans whom other franchises covet. Yet their whole is less than the sum of its parts.

They have an ample supply of promising prospects, but what should general manager Doug Armstrong do with them? The Blues aren’t playing well enough to sacrifice potential long-term assets for short-term help.

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