The St. Louis Blues hit the road for the first time since Drew Bannister took over and begin their Florida swing with a matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena (6 p.m.; BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues (15-14-1) are 2-0 since Bannister took over one week ago today after Craig Berube was fired, getting home wins against the Ottawa Senators (4-2) and Dallas Stars (4-3 in overtime). But after hitting a four-game losing streak, the Blues have rebounded since winning two straight feeling good again.
"I think that's one the players can answer that, but on my side, the feeling when I came in, you could tell there was a little bit of anxiousness with everything that was going on," Bannister said. "Those players went through a tough 24-48 hours. To come out of it the way they did showed a lot of character about that group in the room."
Bannister will be coming home of sorts tonight. He began his NHL career with the Lightning in 1995-96 but will coach his first road game against the Lightning (14-13-5).
"For me, I always enjoy coaching on the road as a coach," Bannister said. "A lot of the things that happen in a game at times are dictated by what the other coach has to do. I think for us, No. 1, I think our focus is on Tampa, although we really have two tough tests ahead of us, two really good hockey teams. Game 1, we did some good things. We corrected some (things) and in Game 2, we got better and we're certainly going to have to be better here against Tampa.
"[Monday] for me kind of felt more normal than the other days. [Sunday] was an off-day for the players, but I was able to come in here and get settled myself and spend a couple hours in here. But yesterday, last night was a bit more normal where I could relax a little bit."
The Blues will ice the same lineup as the previous two games, and Jordan Binnington will make his fifth straight start and seventh in eight games.
The Blues are looking for the series sweep against the Lightning, winning 5-0 at Enterprise Center on Nov. 14.
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The Blues' projected lineup:
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 will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Sammy Blais, Nikita Alexandrov and Scott Perunovich. The Blues report no injuries.
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The Lightning's projected lineup:
Brandon Hagel-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos-Nicholas Paul-Conor Sheary
Tanner Jeannot-Anthony Cirelli-Michael Eyssimont
Tyler Motte-Luke Glendening-Austin Watson
Victor Hedman-Darren Raddysh
Mikhail Sergachev-Erik Cernak
Calvin De Haan-Nick Perbix
Andrei Vasilevskiy will start in goal; Jonas Johansson will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Alex Barre-Boulet and Haydn Fleury. The Lightning report no injuries.
