It's no secret Drew Bannister was looking for more.
Far more.
Following Thursday's 5-2 loss against the Washington Capitals, the St. Louis Blues interim coach was looking for more effort and far better execution from his players, particularly his top players.
It's safe to say Bannister got that and then some, from top to bottom, in what he called the most complete game since he took over for Craig Berube in a 3-0 win against the Capitals at Enterprise Center on Saturday.
The Blues (22-20-2) answered every call in every way possible, a complete 180 from their past two performances in particular, to snap a three-game winless skid (0-2-1).
"There's no question. Obviously as a group, we weren't happy with our effort over the last two games," Bannister said of losses against the Philadelphia Flyers (4-2) last Monday and Capitals on Thursday. "Tonight, it was a complete game. As far as I've been here, that's our most complete game from top down, our forwards, our defense, our goaltending, power play, PK. Guys played hard. They played the right way. Now the challenge is to continue to build on that and have consistency with that type of game."
Let's not waste any time and dive right into the three keys to victory:
1. Response to loss, better execution -- On Thursday, the Blues' top players were virtually non-existent while the Capitals (22-16-6) had their top guys going.
If the Blues are to have success, they need Robert Thomas, Brayden Schenn, Pavel Buchnevich, Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and company to perform at a top level.
They got that, not just on the scoresheet, and more and limited the Capitals to 18 shots on goal, a season-best for the Blues and the third-fewest by Washington this season.
"That was just a tremendous effort top to bottom," said goalie Jordan Binnington, who registered his second shutout this season and 14th of his career. "We really bought in and we played the right way. We were successful. We understand here that what we're here for is to win and win hockey games, get points and make playoffs. Tonight is a great example of how we need to play. Just a smooth night."
Added Schenn, who scored his 10th goal of the season, "From puck drop right to the finish, guys were winning their battles, they were back-checking, D were closing plays and we were getting saves. That's how we have to play. It's not always going to be pretty, but in reality, that's how we've got to win games. Now we've got to go do it on the road."
2. Skating was top notch, which led to a persistent forecheck, which led to sustained zone time -- On Thursday, it just didn't seem like the Blues were skating, which makes them look like they're not forechecking, which makes them not play physical, which makes them get little to no o-zone time.
They had just seven hits in the game Thursday, and on Saturday, Nathan Walker by himself had six of 19.
Puck retrievals and zone exits were clean, passes were crisp, guys were skating fluidly, and pucks were put into right areas for the F-1 and F-2 to properly do their jobs.
"It was a good response from our group too," Parayko said. "In the o-zone, we held onto pucks, we were strong on pucks and even coming out of our zone, I thought we did a great job of supporting each other and when we were there, we did a good job of holding onto pucks and recovering pucks when we had to. Just a great effort by our group.
"Obviously 'Binner' made some big saves, forwards were great, I thought our d-core was good too. Good response. I think it's something to build on for our group."
3. Blues flipped the switch on special teams -- Going 0-for-5 on the power play and giving up two power-play goals and close to three when one was scored literally seconds after a Blues penalty ended all resulted in the loss Thursday.
On Saturday, Parayko scored shorthanded, Schenn scored on a delayed penalty, and Jake Neighbours added a power-play marker leaving the Blues 1-for-2 with the man advantage and a perfect 3-for-3 killing penalties while holding the Capitals to 13 even-strength shots.
"Some good meetings by our special team coaches with 'Otter' and 'Webby,'" Schenn said of assistant coaches Steve Ott and Mike Weber. "We took away what was beating us the other night with the middle of the ice on the penalty kill and power play got a big goal to give us a little breathing room at the end of the game. A good, solid effort by everyone."
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