ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues were needing a change.
Things haven't been going well with four straight losses.
They made one change on Tuesday, replacing Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube with interim coach Drew Bannister, bringing the 49-year-old up from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
The next had to be a different execution on the ice and got one, a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Robert Thomas scored twice and had an assist to lead the way; Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, with Buchnevich adding an assist, and Jordan Binnington kicked out 32 saves for the Blues (14-14-1), who won for the first time in 10 days.
Let's look at the three-period takeaways and dissect how this one went down in the Blues' favor:
* First Period -- The Blues had a mindset to get aggressive and get the puck in the offensive zone. They shot pucks early and often on Joonas Korpisalo, getting the first 11 shots on goal.
No. 11 came when Thomas was able to score and give the Blues a 1-0 lead at 8:20 when he fended off defenseman Artem Zub on his back and beat the Senators goalie five-hole after a stretch pass through the middle of the ice by Justin Faulk that was deflected but not enough to disrupt the play.
The Blues, who outshot the Senators 14-6 in the opening frame, did have two power plays in the opening period, and yes, they didn't score, but I liked the attack on the first one in particular after Mark Kastelic was whistled for interference at 11:09. They generated all three shots on goal with the man advantage on that first one and one was a Thomas one-timer, which has been sorely lacking.
The second came off a Brady Tkachuk holding penalty at 19:41 that carried into the second period.
* Second Period -- Nothing came of that one too, and then when former Blue Vladimir Tarasenko tripped up Hugh McGing, who would have had a breakaway otherwise, at 2:24, it was an 0-for-3 night, making the Blues power play 7-for-86 on the season (8.1 percent).
But the Blues kept pushing, and Thomas made it 2-0 at 5:17 when he backhanded in a Faulk wrister from the blue line, collecting the rebound after Korpisalo made the initial save.
Jordan Kyrou, who received attention tonight in a not-so-memorable way, took a holding penalty at 5:52 but the Blues penalty kill stood firm.
The Blues were more effective on plays along the walls, and Saad benefitted when Kasperi Kapanen came out with a puck off the wall, split two d-men feeding Nick Leddy, who patiently waited out Zub to slide to the ice before feeding Saad for the one-timer and a 3-0 lead at 8:42.
Feeling the need for a spark, Tkachuk, Ottawa's captain, knew when to pick his spot. He wanted to put a jolt into his team and had a spirited fight with Tyler Tucker at 9:46.
It worked for the visitors, who found some spark and life and scored at 10:22 when Dominik Kubalik was in alone on Binnington and slid a puck five-hole to make it 3-1. It came after Oskar Sundqvist was hit by Ridly Greig inside the Blues' blue line, twisting the Blues' forward and sending him to the locker room and Ottawa was able to turn the puck back in on Binnington.
Alexey Toropchenko, although making a hustle play, took an offensive zone penalty for holding at 16:06 and it was another key kill by the Blues, who led 3-1 after two periods.
* Third Period -- Binnington was called into action with the Senators pushing early, and the Blues' goalie stood tall.
That's when the top line of the Blues struck again, when Buchnevich finished off Kyrou's feed to the slot for a one-timer making it 4-1 at 7:07.
Binnington made 12 saves in the period, including two on Tim Stutzle and another on old friend Tarasenko before Mathieu Joseph cut the Blues lead to 4-2 with 1:34 remaining.
The play was reviewed for a high stick but video was inconclusive and the goal stood.
No matter though, as the Blues doubled up a 4-2 win despite being outshot 34-30.
