Has anyone seen Godot?

	With Tom Barrasso (above) in the fold, Fred Brathwaite may be the odd goaltender out when Brent Johnson returns.

St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville probably is waiting for him, too. And if he ever shows up, Quenneville might give him a start in the St. Louis net, as well.

The Blues and their coach have spent much of the season in a holding pattern -- not that there's anything wrong with that, especially because the Blues have stunningly overachieved under the circumstances so far this season.

Often, adversity is a coalescing experience, and at least through the first quarter of the season, that seems to have been the case for the Blues.

They've had ready-made excuses for playing as if they each ate a bagful of White Castle hamburgers after the warm-up.

And yet the Blues, who have several games in hand on the rest of the pack, are within striking distance of the Stars in the Western Conference standings.

When Quenneville skated over to the visiting bench near the end of the Blues' morning skate in the Savvis Center over the weekend to chat with Colorado general manager Pierre Lacroix, his former boss at Quebec City and Denver, he could asked how the Avalanche felt last season as they waited for Peter Forsberg.

The Blues are waiting for Brent Johnson to return from his high ankle sprain (how come they never say "low ankle sprain?"), and for the sorting-out of their goaltending situation.

They are waiting for the latest determination of Chris Pronger's long-range prognosis following his latest hand surgery. And that's just a prognosis involving a likely recovery for the playoffs, not a promise of an imminent return.

They have been waiting for Keith Tkachuk to return to the lineup, which could happen as soon as tonight against San Jose but more likely at Denver against the Avalanche on Wednesday.

And still the Blues have won 12 of their first 19 games. That's amazing under the circumstances.

It's not as if coaches should shut a couple of their regulars' hands in the bus door or anything, but the increased responsibilities of second-tier players during injury runs in the long run can be a positive.

"We've gotten through our goaltending situation, and it's pretty amazing with the number of goalies we've had,'' said Quenneville, who this season has used five men in net -- and none of them named Brent Johnson.

Johnson is working out and will return to the crease soon, meaning one of the other two veterans currently playing -- Fred Brathwaite or Tom Barrasso -- suddenly will be expendable.

"Tommy can help us," Quenneville said. "It looks like the way he handles the net, he might take advantage of the opportunity here. Freddie's been good, the kids (Curtis Sanford, Reinhard Divis and Cody Rudkowsky) have all played excellent, but we hope Johnny can come back and get his game back to where it was last year and even improve off of those levels.

"But it's been a long absence for him, probably lot longer than we anticipated around here. The light's at the end of the tunnel about when he's going to return, and I think we're looking at three weeks, around there."

Translation: Johnson, the intriguing 25-year-old who was so strong in the early stages of last season, isn't going anywhere.

	“	All of a sudden, we got that news that (Pronger) might return later in the year, so we've got our fingers crossed. But we're probably not going to know until January whether that can happen.”
		— Blues coach Joel Quenneville on the status of Chris Pronger

Barrasso, who was out of work until this goaltending crisis under the Gateway Arch, seems to have earned Quenneville's confidence as the sort of veteran a coach might stake his job on in the playoffs.

Brathwaite likely will be the odd man out and available for the right offer. Or any offer.

"If everybody's healthy, I don't anticipate having three around," Quenneville said. "You might have to deal with it for a while, but I don't think long-term, that's healthy."

Pronger's absence has had a silver lining, in the sense that the Blues' younger defensemen have had to shoulder more responsibility. Barrett Jackman is barely old enough to drink legally in Missouri. He has leveled off after a strong start but remains a revelation for the Blues. Bryce Salvador and Alexander Khavanov have been even more assertive, and Al MacInnis doesn't seem to have lost anything off his fastball.

"All of a sudden, we got that news that (Pronger) might return later in the year, so we've got our fingers crossed," Quenneville said. "But we're probably not going to know until January whether that can happen.

"The play of the younger defensemen has been very instrumental in us getting off to a good start. Jackman played really well in his first two games. Salvador and Khavanov have played really well. So these guys have been absorbing more minutes, but their play has been real good."

In his seventh season with the Blues, Quenneville has beaten the odds in a business of short-term tenures. One of the survival techniques has been his indisputable ability to overcome the challenges of the inevitable injuries in this league. He doesn't whine, he doesn't spend his time saying he's not making excuses (which is the preamble to the most familiar NHL excuse-making), he doesn't say he's had worse luck than a broken-down horseplayer at Saratoga.

He just keeps plugging along, throwing organization players like Eric Boguniecki out there and trying not to act shocked when the young winger scored 10 goals in the first month.

And waiting.

Terry Frei is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His book, "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,", officially is being issued by Simon and Schuster on December 2. It is in many stores now, however, is available for ordering from Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com.