Around the NHL: Pluses and minuses

Times columnist Helene Elliott rates the pluses and minuses in the NHL from the past week:

+ The St. Louis Blues are 10-0-1 since they lost to the Ducks at Anaheim on Jan. 2, fueled by an offense that has averaged 4.18 goals per game during that surge. They extended their winning streak to five Sunday by beating Washington despite missing Jori Lehtera and Patrik Berglund because of injuries and losing defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to an abdominal injury that will require surgery. Shattenkirk will be out week to week.

+ Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin joined some elite company Sunday when he hit the 30-goal level for the 10th time in his 10 NHL seasons. The only other players who scored 30 or more goals in 10 straight seasons to start a career were Mike Bossy, Jari Kurri and Mike Gartner.

+ There’s a new candidate for rookie of the year. Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg, who had a chance to play in the American Hockey League last season but stayed in Sweden to improve his defensive game, has been impressive and was named the NHL’s rookie of the month for January. He had five goals and 13 points in 13 games, giving him 24 points in 35 games. He’s also plus-nine defensively, slightly ahead of Florida rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s plus-six.

- Sad news about Chicago Blackhawks Hall of Famer Stan Mikita. His family said last week he had been diagnosed with suspected Lewy body dementia, a progressive disease. Mikita, 74, is the franchise’s scoring leader with 1,467 points and an iconic figure who was the NHL’s most valuable player twice, its scoring leader four times and was voted its most gentlemanly player twice.

- The Buffalo Sabres were 0-for-January, losing all 12 games they played in the month to run their overall losing streak to 14. Here’s one possible reason for optimism: Their next game is at Montreal, site of their last road win, on Nov. 29. They’re 0-13-1 on the road since then.

- January wasn’t a good month for the Toronto Maple Leafs, either, as they were 1-11-1 and averaged 1.23 goals per game. Although rumors from the Center of the Hockey Universe said Kings Assistant General Manager Rob Blake might be in line to become the Leafs’ general manager, there’s no chance that will happen any time soon.