Things have not gone according to plan for the St. Louis Blues after an active offseason seemed to situate them among the NHL's elite.
The Blues sit three points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference but forward Ryan O'Reilly remains confident the club can contend.
"We haven't been perfect, but we are starting to get back into this fight and I am confident that we are going to play in the playoffs because of the way we work," O'Reilly said during All-Star Game media day, according to NHL.com's Shawn P. Roarke.
St. Louis has gone 6-3-1 in its last 10 games. O'Reilly, who attributes the turnaround to new-found confidence in the locker room, has posted 12 points over those 10 contests.
"We're starting to get a lot more consistent and we have a lot more confidence in our game," he said. "When bad things happen, we don't deviate from our game plan and we get back into it and understand that bad bounces happen and there are going to be breakdowns. But when that happens we have to come together and work out of it, and that has been the trend for us lately."
The Blues will exit their All-Star Game bye week with tough matchups against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators within their first five contests.
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