Adam Proteau analyzes the St. Louis Blues turning around their season, whether New Jersey Devils coach Lindy Ruff is on the hot seat and the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.

Welcome back to Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which we tackle a few hockey topics and break them down in a few short paragraphs. Regular readers know the routine by now, so let’s get to it:

The St. Louis Blues have been an unpredictable team this season, and coach Craig Berube paid for it with his job in mid-December. The Blues replaced him on an interim basis with Drew Bannister. 

Since Bannister took over on Dec. 13, the Blues have started to find a new identity. It shows in their record, as they’ve posted a 13-6-1 record in their last 20 games to crawl back into the Central Division playoff race. Interestingly, in St. Louis’ current five-game win streak, their last four victories have all come by a 4-3 score. That’s not something you see every day at any level of hockey.

That said, the Blues are providing an example of what can happen when a team changes coaches during the season. St. Louis has become a much better defensive squad under Bannister, limiting their opponents to two goals or fewer in seven of their 13 wins. That will ratchet up the pressure on other franchises currently struggling to get into the win column regularly – specifically, the L.A. Kings, Nashville Predators, and Seattle Kraken in the Western Conference wild-card playoff race. Only two standings points separate the Kings, Blues, Preds, and Kraken from each other, and while Los Angeles and St. Louis currently hold onto the wild-card berths, anything can happen the rest of the season.

This means that, unlike last season, the Blues could be a buyer at the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline. St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong has only $546,000 in salary cap space to play with, but he’s demonstrated in the past he’s willing to take big swings at the plate as it pertains to trades. 

Nobody should be surprised to see the Blues step up and try to push themselves ahead in the wild-card race. The longer they’re on this winning stretch, the more likely it is they’ll acquire veteran talent to help them the rest of the way.

Speaking of coaching changes, there’s increasing speculation about whether the sagging New Jersey Devils dismiss Lindy Ruff and go in a new direction behind the bench. Since Dec. 30, the Devils have compiled a 5-7-1 record, and they’ve dropped seven of their last 10 games. That’s nowhere near good enough to stay in the thick of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, and that’s why people are wondering how much time Ruff has left in New Jersey. 

As we’ve seen more and more, the NHL’s coaching carousel seems to spin faster and faster, casting aside coaches who’ve enjoyed success not at all long ago.

Ruff has spent the past three-and-a-half years as Devils coach, and he helped the team break out in a big way last season. But the NHL is a what-have-you-done-for-us-lately business, and if New Jersey doesn’t get its act together quickly, Ruff could be a coaching casualty. Is that fair? No. Is that the reality? Yes.

Finally, best wishes to Columbus Blue Jackets star winger Patrik Laine as he enters the NHL and NHL Players’ Association’s player assistance program. Laine’s statement on the move included a note of gratitude for the support he’s received as a human being, and that’s as it ought to be, regardless of the player or situation we’re talking about.

We’ve seen an uptick in the number of players in the assistance program, but that’s not necessarily an indication that more players are suffering. Rather, it’s a positive comment of where we are now and the empathy we have for people, regardless of their status or level of fame. We’re all human beings, and if we need to take time away from our profession to feel good again, so be it. No one needs to suffer in silence anymore, and that’s a positive development.