Blues aim to work hard for new coach, top Blackhawks

The St. Louis Blues will try to stay hot under interim coach Drew Bannister when they welcome the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

The Blues have won three of four games since Bannister took over for Craig Berube, who was fired last week after a 13-14-1 start that included a four-game skid at the time of his dismissal.

Blues captain Brayden Schenn said he and his teammates want to do well for their new boss. Berube was a popular coach who guided the Blues to a Stanley Cup championship in 2019, and players want to make sure that they give Bannister the same level of respect.

"Whether he has an interim tag on him or not, you always respect your coach, and you always work hard for him," Schenn said. "He's getting a chance after, I think, it's 12 years of coaching, and he's excited for the opportunity. So it's on guys like myself and the vets around the locker room to buy in and preach what he's been saying in our locker room."

St. Louis will face a Blackhawks club that has lost five of six games, including a 5-2 setback at home Friday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Jason Dickinson and Ryan Donato scored for Chicago, but it was not enough as Montreal scored a handful of goals in the final two periods.

Dickinson acknowledged that the losses have grown tiresome.

"It's really frustrating," Dickinson said. "Intentions are there. We want to do the right things. We want to win. We want to battle. But the execution isn't there all the time.

"(That) comes with being a young team. But at a certain point you just have to figure it out. It's (as) simple as that. You either figure it out or you don't, and time will tell whether what we're doing here is working."

Chicago likely will start Arvid Soderblom in net. The 24-year-old from Sweden is 2-10-1 with a 4.00 goals-against average and an .872 save percentage in 14 games this season.

Soderblom has faced the Blues twice in his career. He is 0-2-0 with a 4.53 GAA and an .857 save percentage.

The Blues expect to counter in net with Jordan Binnington, who is 10-10-1 with a 3.20 GAA and a .904 save percentage in 24 games this season. Binnington has won two of his past three outings but is coming off a disappointing start against the Tampa Bay Lightning in which he gave up five goals in 23 shots.

In 11 career games against Chicago, Binnington is 8-2-1 with a 2.51 GAA and a .907 save percentage.

The Blackhawks' top scorer is rookie Connor Bedard, who has 12 goals and 17 assists in the first 32 games of his rookie campaign. Philipp Kurashev is second on the scoring list with six goals and 11 assists in 25 games.

Robert Thomas leads the Blues with 12 goals and 23 assists in 32 games. Next is Pavel Buchnevich, who has 12 goals and 14 assists in 30 games.

This is the third meeting between the teams this season and the first time that they will play in St. Louis. The Blues won 4-2 on the road Nov. 26 and fell short 3-1 on the road Dec. 9.