Breaking down St. Louis Blues first half of 2013-2014 season

How would you say the Blues first half has been this season? I'm sure lots might see it differently at time, because of injuries happening. But even with the injuries that have happened this season, they've been able to step up and keep pace with the rest of the league. A lot of that is because the Blues have depth down in the AHL who could be ready for the NHL soon. One of those players is Dmitrij Jaskin, who was up earlier in the season and played in four games. During that period of time, he scored his first NHL goal of his career. Players on the Blues noticed that he could be ready soon to take someone's job away.

Heading into tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers, the Blues are 29-7-5. That's their best record in franchise history for the first half of any season. As a team the Blues have scored 150 goals, and that ranks them second in the NHL for most goals scored. The team leading in goals scored as a team are the Chicago Blackhawks, with 167. The Blues have beat the Blackhawks three times this season and are 3-0 against them. What do I like best about this years team from the first half? There's lots of things I like about this years team from the first half, and if I had to pick one of them it would be that they have a lot of players who can score. It's not just one player scoring all the goals, it's pretty much every player scoring goals.

Just think about how much better this team will be once both forward Alexander Steen and defenseman Roman Polak get back from their injuries and the whole team is fully healthy. This team looks like they are getting healthy at the right time and are starting to come together as a team, after having their top players out of the line up. I don't think the Blues will do much of anything at the trade deadline, there's no reason to ruin the team chemistry. The Blues seem to be fine with goalies Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak. I only see the Blues making a move, if one of those goalies get hurt. That's assuming the Blues don't feel Jake Allen would be fully ready to go into the playoffs.

Which players could step up in the second half of the season? Patrik Berglund (if he stays playing left wing, he seems better playing left wing), and maybe Magnus Paajarvi. While, Paajarvi hasn't scored much yet, he has shown flashes that he can score. I know Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock credits him a lot of the time for the way he plays and has been improving since he came to the Blues. That may not show fully yet in scoring though.

Blues center Maxim Lapierre will be playing in his 500th career game tonight.

Out of the Blues free agent signings during the offseason, I'd say center Derek Roy has proven to be the Blues best free agent signing, second best forward Brenden Morrow, and third best center Maxim Lapierre. I like how Lapierre has improved his game after being suspended earlier in the season. I think a lot of that has been Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock helping him improve his game.

Lastly, the Blues have a great chance to win the West if they can pick up their start from the first half. And come playoff time, the Blues should be a lot of fun to watch. I'm even glad defenseman Ian Cole is playing well, when people thought he couldn't play once Jordan Leopold got hurt. Cole has proved lots of people wrong.

On a side note, the Blues have ten Olympians. That ties them the with Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings for the most players.