In St Louis, new coach coach Drew Bannister won in his fist game as bench boss of the Blues on Thursday in a 4-2 decision over the Ottawa Senators.
“It’s not about me,” Bannister said. “It’s never going to be about me. It’s about the group of players out there. When I look at the game, I’m proud of the way we played. This group has gone through a lot in the last 48 hours. It wasn’t perfect, but they responded well here tonight.”
Jordan Binnington made 32 saves in the win.
The Blues moved to 14-14-1.
Robert Thomas hit for a double for the Blues. His two strikes gave them a 2-0 lead into the middle frame.
“It was a great game by everyone,” Thomas said. “We came together as a team, everyone pulled their weight. Everyone did a great job from start to finish. … The whole game I thought we played great. Kudos to everyone.
“I think we had each other’s backs out there. You can see it on the ice. Mistakes happen all the time, but we were there for one another, we killed plays, we had each other’s backs. It was a fun brand of hockey to play, and we’re excited in the direction we’re going.”
His first came at at 8:20 of the opening stanza; his double extended the advantage to 2-0 at 5:17 of the middle frame.
Brandon Saad stretched the lead to 3-0 at 8:42 of the second.
The Senators dropped to 11-13-0.
“Obviously, they came out real hard,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said of St. Louis. “We turned over two or three in the first period that allowed them to have a lot of zone time, gain momentum, and they came out way sharper than we did. We should know that they’re going to come out sharp, obviously [losing] four in a row and the coaching change. So, we’ve got to be better than that. And then the second period, just a couple of really bad coverages, and it’s in the back of the net.”
Dominik Kubalik scored midway through the second period to cut into the Blues lead, making it 3-1 headed to the third period.
St Louis kept the offense rolling when Pavel Buchnevich scored at 7:07 to make it 4-1 to the Blues.
“I think we didn’t have our normal jump, I would say,” Joseph said. “I feel like we didn’t have legs and we’re a fast team and I feel like we weren’t using our speed the right way tonight. And ‘Korpy’ kept us in the game, especially in the first period, and he made some big saves for us. And I feel like it’s hard to go on the road and we’ve got to be ready to play three periods.”
The Senators had one last push, and Mathieu Joseph scored at 18:26 for the 4-2 final count.
Joonas Korpisalo made 26 saves in the loss.
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