Blues interim coach Drew Bannister spent his time Wednesday travelling to St. Louis — including a layover in Baltimore — and he also spent his time drawing up line combinations for his new squad.
On Thursday night, Bannister will make his NHL coaching debut against the Senators, two days after the Blues fired coach Craig Berube.
As Bannister traipsed across the country, he formulated new lines for the Blues, which included reassembling a top line of Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, and putting all four main centers back at center. Here’s what the lines looked like during morning skate on Thursday:
Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad – Brayden Schenn – Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko – Kevin Hayes – Jake Neighbours
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Mackenzie MacEachern – Oskar Sundqvist – Hugh McGing
“When you talk about Robbie, Buchy, Jordan, the most success they had was last year together,” Bannister said. “I want to give our team the best opportunity to win tonight and I think it’s having them on a line together. Jordan’s one player that we have to get going, but both of those players have to help in that progress.
Outside the top line, Bannister said he “wanted to have three lines that are going to play direct and play fast, and can use their bodies.”
Jake Neighbours, coming off the hottest streak of his young NHL career, and Kevin Hayes, who scored two goals in the loss to the Red Wings on Tuesday night, were put together on a line with Alexey Toropchenko.
“Jakey is playing great hockey for this team right now, and so is Hayesy,” Bannister said. “Torpo, he’s a guy that I have a lot of faith in. He was a wonderful player for us down in Springfield. I know he’s played good hockey here, and we’ve got to get him back to playing more direct and harder to play against in the offensive zone.”
Nikita Alexandrov and Sammy Blais will be healthy scratches up front, the third scratch in four games for Blais. That left Mackenzie MacEachern, Oskar Sundqvist and Hugh McGing on the fourth line.
“With Mac and Ginger and Sunny, I’m going to be a guy, I have to play to all four lines,” Bannister said. “There’s some young players here that we need to see play and see if they can play. With that being said, they’ve got to all meet me halfway, but they’re going to have an opportunity. Everybody’s going to have an opportunity to have success on this team.”
For MacEachern, it will be his season debut in the NHL after beginning the season in the AHL. With Springfield, MacEachern has four goals and eight assists and has been one of the team’s most-used penalty killers.
“It’s always fun to play against the top players, whether it’s up here or down there,” MacEachern said. “It’s always good to disrupt them and get in their way.”
Projected Blues lineup vs. Ottawa on Thursday, 7 p.m.
Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad – Brayden Schenn – Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko – Kevin Hayes – Jake Neighbours
Mackenzie MacEachern – Oskar Sundqvist – Hugh McGing
Nick Leddy – Colton Parayko
Torey Krug – Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella – Tyler Tucker
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Scratches: Nikita Alexandrov, Sammy Blais, Scott Perunovich.
Projected Senators lineup at St. Louis
Brady Tkachuk – Josh Norris – Claude Giroux
Vladimir Tarasenko – Tim Stutzle – Drake Batherson
Dominik Kubalik – Ridly Greig – Mathieu Joseph
Parker Kelly – Rourke Chartier – Mark Kastelic.
Jake Sanderson – Jacob Bernard-Docker
Jakob Chychrun – Artem Zub
Erik Brannstrom – Travis Hamonic
Joonas Korpisalo
Anton Forsberg
Scratches: Jacob Larsson, Zack MacEwan.
Injured reserve: Thomas Chabot (lower-body).