Projected Lineup: Dec. 14 vs. Ottawa

Drew Bannister will take over behind the bench on Thursday night for the St. Louis Blues, making his NHL coaching debut against the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m., Bally Sports, 101 ESPN).

With his experience with the AHL's Springfield Thunderbirds and San Antonio Rampage, Bannister has coached 11 players on the roster - Nikita Alexandrov, Sammy Blais, Jordan Binnington, Jordan Kyrou, Joel Hofer, Mackenzie MacEachern, Hugh McGing, Jake Neighbours, Scott Perunovich, Alexey Toropchenko and Tyler Tucker.

"If you watched practice today, it was pretty easy for me to get around and talk to players," Bannister said of his familiarity with the team. "It's going to be an easier transition for them, knowing me, knowing what to expect and how I do things on a day-to-day basis. If you watched our team in Springfield, we were a highly-competitive team and resilient. That's something we're going to work on with this group here."

For Thursday's game, Bannister has made changes to all of the team's forward lines from Tuesday's loss against Detroit. Notably, Pavel Buchnevich is moving back to the wing and on the first line with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. Brayden Schenn slides up to center the second line with Brandon Saad and Kasperi Kapanen, and Jake Neighbours shifts back to the third line with Kevin Hayes and Alexey Toropchenko. Hugh McGing and Mackenzie MacEachern, who have each been recalled from Springfield in the last week, will make the fourth line with Oskar Sundqvist in the middle.

Defensively, pairings haven't changed, although Tyler Tucker is expected to return to the lineup in place of Scott Perunovich.

Jordan Binnington is expected to start in goal.

"When I accepted the job, I reached out to (Steve Ott) and spoke to him yesterday morning at length before I got on the plane," Bannister said of how he arrived at tonight's line combinations. "(I) threw out some ideas what I was thinking, thought about about it on the plane ride, put some notes down… Kinda came up with a resolution, got on another plane, landed called again about 8 o’clock last night and made those decisions on those lines.

"I want to give our team the best opportunity to win tonight, and it's having (Buchnevich, Thomas and Kyrou) on a line together," he said. "And after that, I wanted to have three lines that are going to play direct and play fast and use their bodies. I think I have that with those three lines."

"We've got a good plan for better hockey moving forward," he added. "I'm not here to re-invent the wheel, I'm not going to blow things up. But I expect the four captains on our team to set the tone for the rest of the guys. We have to start getting into the fight earlier... We have to get this moving quickly in the right direction."

PROJECTED LINEUP

Forwards

Pavel Buchnevich - Robert Thomas - Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad - Brayden Schenn - Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko - Kevin Hayes - Jake Neighbours
Mackenzie MacEachern - Oskar Sundqvist - Hugh McGing

Defense

Nick Leddy - Colton Parayko
Torey Krug - Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella - Tyler Tucker

Goalies

Jordan Binnington