FanHouse Patrik Berglund

With the NHL playoffs just around the corner, FanHouse takes a look at some of the lesser-known teams that qualified. Monday's installment: the St. Louis Blues.

Raise your hand if you expected to see the St. Louis Blues as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. No hands raised, eh? Not surprising. Entering this season, not much was expected from the Blues after falling short of the postseason in each of the previous three years.

Despite a rash of injuries to several key players, the Blues were one of the best teams in the NHL during the second half, and now find themselves with an opening round match up against the Vancouver Canucks. So, who are these guys?

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2: After knocking off Columbus in a shootout on Saturday, the St. Louis Blues completed their weekend home-and-home sweep of the Blue Jackets with a 5-2 win at Nationwide Arena. Patrik Berglund picked up a goal and two assists for the surging Blues, while Brad Boyes scored his 30th goal of the season, giving him two straight 30-goal campaigns.

T.J. Oshie made some highlights on Saturday for his crushing hit on Rick Nash, and followed it up on Sunday with his 14th goal of the season.

The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time we see teams make a run at the playoffs. You can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Follow us daily to find out where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.

We keep waiting for playoff teams to separate themselves from the non-playoff pack, and nothing seems to be happening. Races are still exceptionally close, as it seems at least some teams aren't capable of getting on the kind of roll they need in order to sew up a playoff spot. Others look to be in meltdown mode at the worst possible time.

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Canadiens 6, Thrashers 3: For one night, all is well in Montreal as the Canadiens managed to put their epic collapse on hold, pulling out a convincing 6-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. Montreal received a five-point effort from Alex Tanguay and a two-goal performance from Alexei Kovalev, while Carey Price picked up the win in net.

With the win, Montreal claims sole possession of the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference, taking a two-point lead over idle Florida. Montreal bombarded Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen with a four-goal onslaught in the second period, while the Canadiens also went 3-for-6 on the power play.

Entering the 2008-09 season, not much was expected from the St. Louis Blues. Most people recognized their talented young core, but few, if any, were predicting a trip to the playoffs. With just 13 games remaining on their schedule, the Blues enter Tuesday's game in Edmonton just two points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and have an opportunity to move into a tie for the No. 8 spot with a win (and a Dallas loss). So, how did they get here?

The Penguins and Hurricanes entered Tuesday's game in Pittsburgh separated by one point in the Eastern Conference standings, and when you consider the two teams occupied the No's. 9 and 10 seeds respectively, with an opportunity to jump into the No. 8 seed closing out the first half the season, well, it was a pretty big game. Cam Ward rose to the occasion for the Hurricanes, stopping 32-of-33 shots, leading them to a 2-1 win.

Ward was fantastic most of the night, but saved his best play for the final five minutes of regulation when the Penguins were on a four-minute power play. Over the past two nights, the 24-year-old netminder has stopped 66-of-67 shots.

Rookie goaltender Cory Schneider made 16 saves in the Canucks 2-1 win on Friday night, picking up his first career win against the Minnesota Wild.

Vancouver outshot the Wild by a 14-3 margin in the first period, and took advantage of -- according to the box score -- 15 Minnesota giveaways to escape with the victory. Kevin Bieska picked up his fifth goal of the season in the first period, while Jason Jaffray scored his first of the season at the 3-minute mark of the second period.

Mikko Koivu scored Minnesota's only goal of the night, while Niklas Backstrom turned aside 29 shots in the loss.

The win is only Vancouver's second in six games since the loss or Roberto Luongo, while the Wild had won three of four coming into action on Friday.

The best action of the night was probably the assortment of brawls in the first and second periods, resulting in the two teams combining for 56 penalty minutes during the game, and the ejections of Derek Boogaard and Darcy Hordichuk.