ST. LOUIS _ The NHL looks perfectly normal at its holiday break _ if you only glance at the top of the standings.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Blues still sit atop the Western Conference. The reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins lead the Atlantic Division. The 2018 champion Washington Capitals are first overall.
But a deeper look into the overall picture reveals considerable chaos and makes the Blues' first-half success all the more impressive.
Look at the tumult all around them. Look at the reminders that consistent success can't be taken for granted, even from Cup contenders.
The San Jose Sharks never recovered from losing to the Blues in the Western Final. They let captain Joe Pavelski walk over the summer and they fell apart this season. They gave coach Peter DeBoer the short haircut.
They earned just one victory in their last 10 games before the break. They looked awful while falling to the Blues 5-2 Saturday and they didn't look much better during their 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Monday.
"We're a veteran team. I'd understand if we were dressing 10-12 rookies, but you can count the number of rookies on this team on one hand," Sharks captain Logan Couture told reporters Monday. "It is our veterans, not our young guys, who are making mistakes."
If general manager Doug Wilson survives this collapse, he will have to hit the reset button and start over. Or maybe the next GM will get that task.
The Dallas Stars lost three of their last four games under interim coach Rick Bowness, who stepped in when the real coach, Jim Montgomery, got booted for off-ice indiscretions of some kind.
"We're off our game, clearly, we are," Bowness told reporters after a 5-1 loss to Calgary Saturday. "This is obviously not the way we wanted to go into the break, but it is. We will come back on the 27th in a better frame of mind and get back on track."
After winning the Pacific Division last season, the Flames struggled out of the gate this season and then fired coach Bill Peters when bad coaching behavior from his past came to light.
The once-proud Chicago Blackhawks suspended assistant coach Marc Crawford after bad coaching behavior in his past came to light. Crawford is back now, but the Blackhawks are not.
They lost six of their last nine games heading into the break _ including a 7-1 tumble against the terrible New Jersey Devils. All hope for the 2019-20 Blackhawks has been lost.
"Just an embarrassment," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews told reporters after the game. "I don't know if that's an emotion but that's what we're all feeling and what we should be feeling at this moment."
Back in October the Devils looked like a potential breakout team after drafting Jack Hughes first overall and acquiring defenseman P.K. Subban. But that team collapsed, leading to the ouster of coach John Hynes and the sell-off of winger Taylor Hall as he headed toward free agency.
The Toronto Maple Leafs also entered the season looking to finally make a serious bid to win the Cup. They sputtered instead, which led to coach Mike Babcock's dismissal and revelations about bad coaching behavior in his past.
After surviving his team's postseason no-show last spring, Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper has failed to motivate his supremely talented team this season. If the playoffs started today, the Lightning would not even be in the bracket.
They went 5-5-1 during an 11-game stretch of games in Tampa. Along the way they suffered a 4-3 loss to the Blues at home.
"We need to win some games at home," Cooper told reporters Saturday. "We used to be, we were lights out. I haven't minded the way we've played on the road, but we need to win at home."
Amid all this tumult, some long-suffering franchises finally made progress during this season's first half. Fans just getting back from a three-month cave exploration would scratch their heads looking at the standings.
Back East, the Buffalo Sabres finally moved past their disastrous trade of Ryan O'Reilly to the Blues to become respectable under first-year coach Ralph Krueger. They are bidding for their first winning season since 2011-12.
Krueger's hiring seemed puzzling at the time, since he spent nearly all of his coaching career in Germany and Switzerland before crossing over to soccer as chairman of Southhampton FC. If the Sabres can make the playoffs, Krueger could win the Jack Adams Award and Jack Eichel could collected the Hart Trophy.
Who could have predicted that back in the fall?
The Arizona Coyotes broke out this season, then acquired Hall from New Jersey before the break. If they can overcome the loss of hot goaltender Darcy Kuemper to a significant injury, they could become the new Golden Knights.
The Edmonton Oilers are finally becoming relevant again, thanks to Dave Tippett's great coaching, and the Vancouver Canucks have executed a quick turnaround in the Post-Sedin Era.
The Western Conference playoff race remains competitive, albeit different. And somehow the Blues keep winning all the same.
