"I can't say I'm happy about it, but it is what it is at this time right now"

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The St. Louis Blues know Jakub Vrana can be a difference maker. Vrana knows he can be a difference maker.

The speed is elite, the shot is prime, can be sublime and the scoring has the potential to be game-breaking.

But right now, it's about the player and the coach perhaps being on the same page, which seems crystal clear coming from both sides, as to what the coach wants -- and needs -- from the player.

That's where things stand as of Sunday.

On Sunday at practice, the 13th pick in the 2014 NHL Draft was skating on a line with Kevin Hayes and Jake Neighbours, trying to earn his way back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past two games.

And Vrana made his feelings quite clear to The Hockey News Sunday.

"I can't say I'm happy about it, but it is what it is at this time right now," Vrana said. "The reaction is what matters right now. I'm going to keep working on me and I'm going to keep working on my game. Hopefully I get the chance to be back and show what I can do. We know my game here a little bit. I can skate, I can score, I can create chances. There is other parts of the game that you know we have to do as well. You can't win games without it. I've been on winning teams before and I know what it takes. Defense can create a lot of offense for you that you can build off. I think that's the main focus right now is to play with the puck, manage the puck and get to the hard areas and hopefully we can create some offense of it like most of the time you can."

Vrana, who is second on the Blues with three points (one goal, two assists) in five games and is tied with Brandon Saad with a team-leading plus-2, last played Tuesday in a 4-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets. In the third period, he took what was an unfortunate interference penalty to negate 30 seconds of power play time in a one-goal game, but he also had a pair of casual turnovers with the puck. Those were likely the camels that broke the straw's back. He played just 9:12 in the game and took a seat for games at Calgary on Thursday and Vancouver on Friday.

"That's what you've got to do sometimes," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "It's the hard part of the job and it's the hard part on the player too, but we need a response.

"I didn't think he wasn't on the same page. Just sometimes you've got to watch and learn from it and hopefully he's better."

Vrana has averaged just 12:13 per game and has only seven shots in five games. That's not going to cut it from the Blues' perspective; they need him to be a shooter. They need Vrana to be a factor with the puck, and in order to do that, he needs to have it more on his stick. According to naturalstattrick.com, Vrana's ixG (total individual expected goals) is 0.62. Last season with the Blues in 20 games, it was 3.74.

When we talk about Vrana's speed, he's reached a top skating speed of 22.75, according to NHL Edge stats; the average for a winger is 21.46, and puts Vrana at a 95 percent percentile. But he also carries an offensive zone time of 36.3 percent, which is below 50th, with a league average of 40.6 percent. His high danger goals-for percentage is 66.67 percent, which is good, but there's just not enough of them with eight through five games because he's been on the ice for nine of them against.

So he's either not keeping the puck when he has it, not shooting it as often as he needs to, or the line as a whole simply isn't getting it done.

Those are things that have been communicated.

"We talked. We communicate in this team," Vrana said. "That's important. I got my message. It's what it is. I accept it as it is. I can't say I'm happy about it, but at the same time, I'm not going to stop. It doesn't get to me. I'm going to keep working, I'm going to try and earn my minutes."

But the question coming from this end of it: wouldn't Vrana benefit more from playing with higher end playmakers? Perhaps on a line with Robert Thomas with Jordan Kyrou or Pavel Buchnevich? Or play him with Brayden Schenn and Brandon Saad/Kyrou?

When asked about it, Vrana seemed to make his pitch to help accentuate his talents.

"One-hundred percent, yeah. A 100 percent yeah," he said. "At the same time, I can only control what I can control and that's coming in here with a good attitude, be positive and work on yourself and then other things will always come.

"It's just a matter of time, it will always come. That's my main focus to be honest, to do my job. There's things I don't decide, I don't control, but I think it will come. It's a matter of time. I'm going to keep working and then we see how it goes.

"... That's it right now. Those aren't really questions I can answer for you right now. I don't really know. Me as a player, I've got my job to come here and work. Most of the questions, I don't really have an answer for."

Yes, a message was sent to Vrana, who has overcome plenty in his personal life in recent memory off the ice that he can certainly overcome now on the ice, Getting benched is never easy for a high-end player, or any player for that matter. Once you're back in the lineup, it's up to the player to do what he can to stay in, and playing with some fire in the belly is a good way of doing it.

"I agree with you. For sure, but at the same time, it is (playing) pissed off, but you've also got to be focused on what you can do," Vrana said. "You're going to do things out there, but you're going to know how you can help the team as well, why you're here."

Vrana, in the last year of his contract, was brought here to be a difference maker. The Blues know he can be one.

"That's up to him, but in the end, he's a talented guy that can score goals for us and be a good player for us, power play and 5-on-5, but you've got to work," Berube said. "We've got to work."

Maybe Vrana isn't the only player deserving of being benched, but he was the first. He is counting on it being his last.