Who’s Surging In The NHL Since The 4 Nations Face-Off?

There’s always a risk of peaking too early. But if all goes well, NHL players and teams hope that the positive momentum that’s built down the home stretch of the regular season will carry into playoffs and boost them when it matters most.

Consistency is always the goal, but that’s no small feat to achieve. The next best option is getting hot at the right time. 

In February, I singled out the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson for a sag in their performance. Now, they’re at the top of their games, right when it matters most.

Here's one team, goalie and skater that have been heating up since the 4 Nations break:

When the Blues snapped up coach Jim Montgomery after he was let go by Boston in November, they didn’t get that new-coach bump that we often see when changes are made behind the bench.

At the end of 2024, St. Louis sat three points out of a wild-card spot with a record of 18-17-4. Then, they went 7-9-1 up to the 4 Nations break.

But ever since Jordan Binnington backstopped Canada to win the 4 Nations championship, the Blues have refused to lose. Saturday’s 2-1 win over another hot team, the Colorado Avalanche, took them to 15-2-2 since the break. That’s a .842 points percentage that works out to a 139-point pace over a full season — even better than the record-setting 135 points Montgomery’s Boston Bruins logged in 2022-23.

Binnington’s 10 wins since the break are tied for the most in the league, and his .917 save percentage and 2.09 goals-against average are nice improvements from his .897 save percentage and 2.89 GAA before the break, which earned him a 15-19-4 record.

His backup, Joel Hofer, has also seen his GAA improve from 2.88 to a sparkling 1.98, and he’s 5-0-2 since the break. The Blues will have no issue balancing their goalies’ workloads down the stretch and keeping both in peak form for the post-season.

The St. Louis offense has surged as well. Before the break, the team was scoring just 2.70 goals per game, sixth-fewest in the league. After the break, that number has spiked to a league-leading 3.89 goals a game, built off contributions from across the lineup.

Robert Thomas is leading the way with 27 points in 19 games, an average of 1.42 points per game. Because he missed 12 games with an ankle fracture earlier in the year, he was at 41 points in 44 games before the break — leading the team, at that time, with 0.93 points per game. 

Dylan Holloway has also made headlines as he gets comfortable following last summer’s offer-sheet saga. At his cap hit of $2.29 million, the 23-year-old is now a bargain with 62 points, and he's averaging over 16 minutes a game in a top-six role.

Before the break, Holloway had 40 points in 56 games, already a career high at 0.71 points per game. In his last 19 games, he has added 22 points, and an eye-popping four of his 10 goals have been game-winners. 

The Blues have been so hot that they’re overshadowing the Carolina Hurricanes, who are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. Vegas and Dallas also both have just one regulation loss in their last 10.

Before Gustavsson got vented for five goals against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, he had given up just six goals in his previous five games. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he got to overtime against Canada and then got pulled against Finland, he has posted a .920 save percentage and 2.21 GAA over 14 games.

Those numbers are even more notable because in his 11 appearances leading up to 4 Nations, he’d been at 3.48 and .896, after a red-hot start to the year.

The Blues have now caught Minnesota in the wild-card standings. And while it’s unlikely that either team can climb higher, they’ll be battling each other for positioning — although playing Winnipeg or Vegas may be a pick-your-poison situation. 

Hintz doesn’t draw a lot of attention, but he’s a top center on a top team who plays a committed two-way game and is on his way to his fourth-straight 30-goal season. 

And perhaps new arrivals Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantanen have helped make up for the absence of injured Finnish defense star Miro Heiskanen in the Dallas Stars’ lineup since the 4 Nations break. After the Finns had to settle for a fourth-place finish in the 4 Nations standings, Hintz has stepped up his game since returning to the Lone Star State.

Before the break, Hintz had a respectable 22 goals and 36 points in 51 games, or 0.71 points per game. After coming back, he has tallied five goals and 23 assists for 28 points in just 16 games. That leads the league, even though he missed two games with a facial injury earlier this month. It may have slowed him down, too: Hintz had just three points in four games after his return but has since rattled off nine points in the last four games. Now that’s a surge.

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