Craig Berube was fired as coach of the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday and replaced by Drew Bannister on an interim basis.
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said a search for permanent coach is underway with no timetable on when a hire will be made.
"That's fair enough. Doug has a job to do," Bannister said Thursday about his interim status. "I'm here to get this team right now going in the right direction. What happens after that, happens. I can't control that. I just have to come in here and get this team winning hockey, and that's the end result for me. If good things happen, if I have to go back to Springfield (of the American Hockey League), that's part of the game, but for me, if I come in here and do my job and the team starts winning hockey games, then we'll see after that, but it's out of my control and Doug has a job to do.
Bannister made his NHL coaching debut against the Ottawa Senators at Enterprise Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; BSMW, TSN5, RDS). He takes over in St. Louis after coaching Springfield for three seasons.
"We went through this five or six years ago," Armstrong said Wednesday. "Good play will dictate a lot of things. Bad play will dictate a lot of things at a player level and all levels of an organization.
"Obviously, I'd like to thank Craig. He and I started working together in 2016 ... helped right a ship and take it to a championship. We built a friendship over the years and it's difficult to have that talk with him last night. He's a true professional. We talked a little bit, we had a beer, we reminisced for a second, and now my job is to move forward and Craig will now regroup and he'll land on his feet. He's too good a coach not to be in this league.
"I feel personally responsible for the situation that we're in and I also hope that the people that I just talked to personally feel responsible too. If they don't, that's their decision. It's not a great day, but it's a new day, and now we move forward."
Berube was in his sixth season and coached the Blues when they lost their fourth straight game, 6-4 to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. St. Louis (13-14-1) is sixth in the Central Division and 26th in goals per game (2.82).
"It's difficult," Blues goalie Jordan Binnington said after practice Wednesday. "He's been my coach for the whole time I've been in the NHL and a little bit of the minors. I've got to know him over the years and had some success. It's always to see someone go, whether it's a teammate or a coach like that, so it's difficult.
"I think the message was if you're not here to be great or to do what it takes to win, to sacrifice for your team, then get out of here. We've got to be proud to wear that Blue Note jersey and proud to be part of this organization and play for this city. If you're not, just get out of here, because we're not wasting time. These are special years, being able to play in the NHL. It's a privilege. It's not going to be forever, so I think a good amount of us, we understand that. We want to make the most of our time."
Berube, 57, replaced Mike Yeo as coach Nov. 20, 2018, and guided the Blues to their only Stanley Cup championship in 2019. He was 206-131-44 in the regular season and 24-27 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with St. Louis. Berube is 281-190-72 in eight seasons with the Blues and Philadelphia Flyers, and 27-31 in the playoffs.
He is the third coach fired this season; the Minnesota Wild hired John Hynes after firing Dean Evason on Nov. 27, and the Edmonton Oilers replaced Jay Woodcroft with Kris Knoblauch on Nov. 12.
"I don't know if tomorrow's going to be different," Armstrong said. "I just know one of the things has been removed from the equation that we can focus on was the head coach and now, when you make that change, we're getting now to the center of the hour glass. That's myself and that's the players.
"What we want to stress as we're going through whatever we're going through is a level of compete and a level of accountability. Starting with Drew tomorrow night, that's his mandate: accountability and compete."
Bannister, 49, was 93-58-19 at Springfield. He guided it to consecutive Calder Cup Playoff appearances, including the 2022 Calder Cup Final. He also played 164 NHL regular-season games from 1995-2001 for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Oilers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and New York Rangers. A defenseman, he was selected by the Lightning in the second round (No. 26) of the 1992 NHL Draft.
"At the end of the day, players in this locker room are going forward knowing that the accountability is going to be there," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "You just can't fire a coach and the players just turn the page and act like nothing's going to happen. I have to be better, we have to be better in this locker room.
"We're underachieving, we're underperforming through 28 games. It's been a roller coaster and even when we're winning, I don't feel like we're winning the right way for the most part. I would say time to pull the rope in the right direction and dig in and buy in as a group. 'Chief's' a guy that takes the fall for it, but it's on these players in this locker room to be better."
NHL independent correspondent Lou Korac contributed to this report
