CALGARY -- Joel Quenneville figures that after nearly two months of filling out lineup cards, he has just about got it down pat.

	Eric Boguniecki leads the Blues with 10 goals.

"Oh yeah. It doesn't scare me anymore. OK, let's see ... B-O-G-U-N-I-E-C-K-I. Boguniecki, right?

"There," he crows, like a kid who has just nailed "prestidigitation" at the school spelling bee, "I told you."

It's tough to say and hell to spell, but Eric Boguniecki is, right now, a name to be mastered and to be reckoned with. That the St. Louis Blues could be where they are without the services of No. 1 goalie Brent Johnson, captain and 30-minute-a-night marathon man Chris Pronger and power forward extraordinaire Keith Tkachuk is amazing enough. But to see that a 27-year-old career minor-leaguer, at best pencilled in as a fourth-line energy guy on a talent-laden team, is a big part of the resurgence has been a revelation.

"I don't believe in quantifying," Quenneville says the afternoon before a game at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary. "Were his chances 50-50, 60-40 or 70-30 of making this team going into training camp? I can't say.

"All I know is he had a pretty solid season in the minors and we were prepared to give him a good, long look.

"He's pesky, he's annoying, but he can also put the puck in the net, as we've all seen so far. We were hoping he'd be able to come in and contribute, but to say we expected what we've gotten so far would be stretching the truth a bit."

Boguniecki is someone to stand up and cheer for. He's a pint-size bottle of nitroglycerin -- the 5-foot-8 part of his 5-8, 192-pounds listing in the 2003 NHL Official Guide and Record Book is a gross exaggeration -- who has perfectly complemented a rejuvenated Doug Weight and reborn Cory Stillman to form the Blues' top line. A guy who has kicked around minor-league whistlestops in Fort Wayne, Louisville and Worcester; someone with exactly zero goals and one point in 13 career NHL games spread over three seasons before this one.

He not only leads the Bluenotes in goals, with nine, and is tied for third in points, at 16, but his plus-11 is a team high. All this early talk of Calder candidacy is a bit off the mark, though. Boguniecki misses qualifying because the age restriction (or the Sergei Makarov rule, as it has come to be known) sets the limit at 26 as of the Sept. 15 of the season in which a player is eligible.

"I never doubted myself," says Boguniecki. "I always believed I would be here. I never gave up. Never. And I can't ever see myself getting complacent.

"Playing with a guy like Doug Weight is such a treat. I mean, that's a given. But you just marvel at the way he passes the puck, the way he finds people in the holes and the way he hits your tape all the time.

"Everything's gone great. The team is off to a good start ... I couldn't ask for more."

Five things you should know about Eric Boguniecki:

	“	What can you say? The tough part for him, for any player, is to do it over the long haul. So far ... wow! ”
		— Joel Quenneville, Blues coach

1. He worked at a dude ranch in New Mexico wrestling steers and roping calves this past summer to get in shape.

2. He played at the University of New Hampshire with the son of Blues general manager Larry Pleau.

3. His 38 goals last season tied a Worcester IceCats team record.

4. He was originally drafted by St. Louis, 193rd overall in 1993, then released outright before being reacquired by the Blues from Florida in exchange for Andrei Podkonicky (yes, that legendary Boguniecki-for-Podkonicky swap) two years ago.

5. His brother, William, maintains Boguniecki's personal website, bogy33.com.

While Boguniecki is undoubtedly the wild card in St. Louis, Weight has been the ace. He's the one most responsible for this winning hand. He has already racked up 20 points, including 13 assists. It's a far cry from the problems of a year ago, when a pelvic injury/abdominal surgery robbed him of 20 games. When he returned for the playoffs, he worried about contact, about pain. That's no way to be playing at top form. So he went into the offseason determined to be at training camp in the finest physical shape of his career. And then, in the first preseason game, he took a hit and felt the pain again.

"I come in on this ultimate high off the summer and then to take this one hit and have the pain reoccur in my pelvis and to go through all that," Weight told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It might have been a blessing in hindsight, ripping all the scar tissue that needed to be torn away. It might have been a blessing.

"More than anything, I don't have to think about it now. I can take a hit."

Teammates and foes alike can't remember Weight being in such magnificent, professional form.

"Dougie's been just great," lauds Quenneville. "He's such a proud guy with such high expectations of himself that last year was tough on him. And I take part of the responsibility for that. He was just too tense, a lot of guys were too tense, around here. This year the focus has been to relax more, come to the rink and use your abilities.

"He's healthy, he's happy, he feels comfortable, and it shows."

And Boguniecki?

Quenneville smiles, shrugs.

"What can you say? The tough part for him, for any player, is to do it over the long haul. So far ... wow! We'll see how it goes from here."

It goes well. The next night, Boguniecki scored the only goal of the game, via the power play, as the Blues sidestepped the Flames for their 11th win of the season.

That's B-O-G-U-N-I-E-C-K-I.

Having a bit of trouble with the spelling? Just keep checking those scoring summaries every day. That name has an uncanny habit of turning up there.

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.