The St. Louis Blues have been heating up at just the right time with less than 15 games to go in the regular season, holding 5th place in the Central Division by a point over Minnesota in the midst of winning four of five, contributing to their impressive 7-4-0 record in their last 11 games. And there's one player in particular who's been driving the whole operation.
28-year-old left winger Pavel Buchnevich now has 5 points in his last 6 games, including Sunday night's 4-2 home win over Anaheim. Although it's worth technically noting that it consists of an assist in the 5-1 win in Boston on March 11 and the Anaheim win, where he picked up 3 helpers, that's still quite impressive.
Buchnevich now has 24 goals, 1 ahead of Robert Thomas for the overall team lead, is 4th on the team in assists (29), 1 helper behind Jordan Kyrou, and is 2nd on total points with 52, the only teammate ahead being Thomas. Going back to the 3-point game against Anaheim, Buchnevich joins some elite franchise company in that statistic. In the last 20 years, longtime Blues RW Vladimir Tarasenko was the only other player to achieve a 3-point game 7 times in a single season. Tarasenko, for the record, achieved 9 3-point games during the 2021-22 season, his 2nd to last one in St. Louis.
Buchnevich has done quite a bit in just 3 seasons in St. Louis during his 8-year NHL career. With 80 goals, 115 assists, and 195 points in 200 games played in a Blues sweater. He set another record alongside his 3-point performance against Anaheim, becoming the first Blues player to record at least 50 points in each of his first three seasons with the team since former captain Ryan O'Reilly, who recorded four straight between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons.
Buchnevich can also help the Blues return to the postseason if he keeps this star level of play up. He had 30 goals and 46 assists for 76 points in 73 games played in his first year.
He also replicated that somewhat in 2022/23 with 26 goals, 41 assists, and 67 points in 63 games played, though the Blues failed to make the playoffs that year. Right now, the Blues sit 2 points behind Vegas, who has 79 points, in the Western Conference wild card standings with 77 points.
Central rival Nashville sits atop the wild card with 82 points. They're also just a single point from fellow Central rival Minnesota. There was a time when Buchnevich looked to be heading to other teams besides St. Louis, which would've dealt a massive blow to the team's playoff push. It's a good thing the Blues have retained arguably the most important member of their offensive core in their quest to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs, which would be their first since Buchnevich's stellar 2021-22 campaign.