What allowed the Blues to become a serious playoff threat?

The St. Louis Blues spent most of the 2024-25 regular season in the mushy middle, seemingly unable to break through and look like a legitimate contender in the Western Conference. But with a 14-2-2 record in their last 18 games, an .833 points percentage during that span, they have been one of hockey’s hottest teams.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk are joined by The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford for another edition of the #AskDFO segment to discuss the Blues’ recent resurgence, who has stepped up, and if they can keep the momentum going as we get closer to the end of the regular season.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Blues were a team on the outside of the Wild Card for most of the year, then boom: they’re firmly in a playoff spot. What flipped in their game to allowe them to go on this run?

Jeremy Rutherford: What’s flipped here in St. Louis? That’s a real good question, because there are very few people here, including myself, who saw this coming. A lot of comparisons to the second-half surge in 2019 when they won a Stanley Cup, I don’t think anybody’s fooling themselves into thinking that this is a legit Stanley Cup contender, but give them a lot of credit, because even after the coach bump when Jim Montgomery took over, there was a period in January where things went south again and it looked like they were gonna miss the playoffs.

But after the 4 Nations break, they look rejuvenated, Jim Montgomery (had them go) back on the forecheck, the penalty kill has gotten better, and most importantly, Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich have put up some bigger numbers than they were earlier in the year.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…