The Drew Bannister Era is underway in St. Louis.
The Blues began the interim coach's tenure with a 4-2 win over the Senators on Thursday night to snap a four-game losing streak and climb their way back to a .500 record.
Robert Thomas scored two goals as Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchenvich also scored. Thomas added a secondary assist on Buchnevich's goal, the second time this season that he's had at least three points.
Jordan Binnington made 32 saves for his ninth win of the season.
Dominik Kubalik and Mathieu Joseph scored for the Senators. Joseph's third-period goal was upheld after a review to determine whether the puck was played with a high stick.
Bannister was coaching his first game since taking over following the firing of Craig Berube late Tuesday night after the Blues' loss to the Red Wings.
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The Blues (14-14-1) will close out a three-game homestand on Saturday night against Dallas.
Two for Thomas
Thomas gave the Blues an early lead 8:20 into the first period, taking a stretch pass from Justin Faulk and fighting off a check from Artem Zub before slipping a forehand through the legs of Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
Faulk threaded the pass up the middle of the ice through a pair of Senators in the neutral zone and past Zub before finding Thomas’ tape. It was Thomas’ team-leading 11th goal of the season. The goal punctuated a strong start to the game by the Blues, who had the first 11 shots of the game and were already up 1-0 by the time Ottawa managed a shot on goal.
Thomas would score his 12th of the year shortly after, when at 5:17 in the second period, he gave the Blues a 2-0 lead. Thomas pulled a puck off the wall and made a pass back to the blue line while on a knee to Faulk. As Faulk distributed the puck to Torey Krug and received it back, Thomas went to the front of the net.
On Faulk’s point shot, Thomas deflected the puck to the ice and deposited the rebound. In the 29th game of the season, Thomas is only eight goals away from tying his career high with 20 goals.
Three and a half minutes after Thomas’ second goal, Brandon Saad extended the Blues lead to 3-0, hammering home a patient feed from Nick Leddy to the right circle.
Ottawa’s Dominik Kubalik made it a 3-1 game with 9:38 left in the second period.
A testy atmosphere
As Zambonis were still swirling around the ice before puck drop, the drama inside Enterprise Center was already building.
During the in-arena pregame show, as soon as general manager Doug Armstrong’s name was mentioned, the few fans that were in the bowl booed. When the team aired footage of Armstrong’s news conference on Wednesday, there were even more boos for the longest-tenured GM in Blues history.
The discontent only intensified during the game, especially toward forward Jordan Kyrou. Earlier on Thursday, when asked by The Athletic about his relationship with Berube, Kyrou said, “I’ve got no comment. He’s not my coach anymore.â€
When Kyrou was announced as part of the Blues starting lineup, he was booed by part of the crowd. During the first period, when Kyrou touched the puck on the power play, he received a smattering of boos, and more rained down when a puck escaped him at the offensive blue line. In the second period, the jeers grew louder when he carried the puck through the neutral zone on the power play and again when he took a holding penalty.
Kyrou entered Thursday with five goals in the first 28 games of the season.
Kyrou and Buchnevich combined on a pretty back-and-forth passing play in the third period, ending with Buchnevich's goal that gave the Blues a 4-1 lead. As the Blues celebrated the goal, Buchnevich pointed his stick to Kyrou, and Thomas was giving Kyrou high-fives and handshakes.
As Kyrou's name was announced on the public address for the primary assist, the boos were canceled out by cheers inside the arena.
Heavyweight bout
In an effort to fire his team up after falling behind 3-0, Senators captain and St. Louis native Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker in the second period. The spirited bout came off a faceoff and drifted to center ice.
Tkachuk is listed at 6-4 and 225 pounds, with Tucker at 6-1 and 204. It was Tucker’s second career fight against the Senators, as he fought Austin Watson in Ottawa last season.
- Oskar Sundqvist exited the game briefly in the second period when he absorbed a high hit away from the puck by Ridly Greig, and Greig later fell on Sundqvist’s leg before Kubalik’s goal. Sundqvist didn’t play the rest of the period but returned for the third period.