Each Monday during the NHL season, Rob Mixer takes a look at the biggest storylines from the hockey week that was. The Blues needed to win, and they did

A few days ago, Mike Yeo sounded like a guy who may have coached his final game with the St. Louis Blues.

But GM Doug Armstrong, who orchestrated the plan to bring Yeo on as a sociate coach and head-coach-in-waiting to Ken Hitchcock -- stuck with his bench bo s at least through the weekend, and the Blues were able to get their biggest win of the season on Saturday night. Two days after the Columbus Blue Jackets dropped seven goals on them in an embarra sing home [url=https://www.nhledgestore.com/patrice-bergeron-jersey][b]Patrice Bergeron Jersey[/b][/url] -ice lo s, the Blues were the team scoring seven times at Enterprise Center in a 7-3 win over the Blackhawks.

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Vladimir Tarasenko, who was quite vocal in support of Yeo after Thursdays lo s to Columbus, was equally so after Saturdays win.

"This is really emotional for us," Tarasenko said, via NHL.com. "Everyone understands how important this game was. The most important thing now is don't think it's over. It's not the end of the season, [url=https://www.nhledgestore.com/zdeno-chara-jersey][b]Zdeno Chara Jersey[/b][/url] so now we have stuff to build on.

Listen: the Blues arent even close to being out of the woods yet but a win at least temporarily releases some pre sure. But theyre 3-4-3 and their nine points are six fewer than third-place Winnipeg (though the Jets have played two more games). And the Blues lost No. 1 goaltender Jake Allen to an injury during Saturdays game, which certainly does not make for an easy road ahead.

On the bright side, Robby Fabbri, Carl Gunnar son and Nikita Soshnikov all rejoined the team on Monday following conditioning stints in the minors. The Kings got one, too

Yes, they got Dustin Brown back for Sundays game against the New York Rangers, but the Kings season is in danger of being over before it really even gets started. That made Sundays dramatic win over the Rangers even more timely.

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They had two wins in their first 10 games entering Sunday and their -18 goal differential was second-worst in the NHL, ahead of only the Detroit Red Wings (its now -17 after the 4-3 win). Theyd lost six in a row before Sunday and collapsed in the third period against Minnesota on Thursday, and now, theyll be without Jonathan Quick (again) for an undisclosed period of time. Hes already mi sed five games this season due to injury, though this lower body injury isnt believed to be related to his previous ailment.

Either way, for a Kings team that needs any kind of spark to get out of this rut, losing Quick hurts even though he hasnt played well: Quick sports a 4.55 GAA and .845 save percentage this season, and at times, its been ugly. Los Angeles must dig out this hole for the time being with a goaltending tandem of Jack Campbell (who played well in Sundays game) and Peter Budaj. Deep breaths, Toronto

Right away, it didnt look good.

Early in the second period of the Maple Leafs win Saturday night, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba delivered a clean, [url=https://www.nhledgestore.com/jake-debrusk-jersey][b]Jake DeBrusk Jersey[/b][/url] hard shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Torontos Auston Matthews and you could see immediately Matthews was in distre s. After brief consultation with team trainers, Matthews went down the runway to the dre sing room and didnt return.

On Monday, the Leafs announced Matthews will mi s at least four weeks of action because of the injury. Keep in mind, Matthews has had shoulder injuries before, and last year he mi sed 20 games with a variety of health i sues. The team went 11-7-2 without Matthews in the lineup a year ago.

Regardle s, not having their top offensive weapon is a big blow for the Leafs.

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Matthews was the NHLs sixth-leading scorer entering Sundays slate of games with 10 goals and 16 points in 11 games, though he hadnt scored a goal since Oct. 13. In fact, hed gone without a point in three games prior to his injury.

But, he will be mi sed, make no mistake. Look to Nazem Kadri to take on a bigger role in the top-six with Matthews out. And, oh yeah, keep in mind that Toronto does have some guy named Tavares on the squad this year to help shoulder pardon the pun the burden while the kid is mi sing from the lineup.