Blues fire Craig Berube; Bannister takes over as interim HC

[pmorrow]

https://twitter.com/StLouisBlues/sta...02831289299196

St. Louis Blues
@StLouisBlues
BREAKING NEWS: Craig Berube has been relieved of his coaching duties and a new interim coach has been named. #stlblues

[stevegamer]

I don't think this will fix things there. We'll see.

[Axeman33]

They trade away a lot of their key players for a slight "re-tooling" so they already knew they weren't going to be a contender. I dont understand this move.

[Daydream Nation]

They trade away a lot of their key players for a slight "re-tooling" so they already knew they weren't going to be a contender. I dont understand this move.

I agree. What did they expect with a bunch of mediocre, and that might be generous, dmen?

[2014olympicgold]

He signed a 3 year extension in Feb 2022 for $3.5m/yr. That's why they didn't fire him then. Doug Armstrong likely wanted him to work and just couldn't delay it any longer.

Doug Armstrong started GMing in 2010 for the Blues and his head coach history is:
Davis Payne: 2010-11
Ken Hitchcock: 2011-17
Mike Yeo: 2017-18
Craig Berube: 2018-2023
Drew Bannister: 2023-present

Outside of 1+ year stints in Payne and Yeo, Armstrong is loyal to the guy he extends. I still don't know what Armstrong and Ownership was expecting this yr. Hovering around 500, I think that's what you expected from the team, but on a 3-7 stretch, maybe it was always "once you start going on a losing streak, you're fired" situation.

[Belexus75]

Maybe its more than just hockey related? i agree it makes no sense if it was based on team's performance.

[tweetdrivr]

The blues have more SH goals than PP goals. The young skill guys are crap. The performance is way below expected, which was at least middling. The coach deserved to be fired.

[Pengwin7]

Bit of a weird year... the team chooses Brayden Schenn as captain (instead of Robert Thomas).
Schenn is -10, team worst.
Thomas is +6, team best.
Kind of feels like team chemistry could/should just be way better... that's my guess on the firing.
(Speculating: If Armstrong directly pulls the captain in and talks to him - there would have to be some complaining by Schenn to justify his +/-... and you throw the coach under the bus there... instead of yourself.)


On defense, the offensive guys (Perunovich -7, Krug -5) seem to be the net negative guys.

I'd have to guess that Armstrong looks at the Coyotes (28pts) and says "We shouldn't be worse than these guys".
And he'd be right.

[senryu]

As noted elsewhere, the Blues have many players on big, unjustified contracts. Berube didn't sign those players to those contracts.

[stevegamer]

I mean, they could've let him go after 2022, but it'd be really, really hard to sell the fanbase on letting a coach go who has done this:

4 straight winning seasons to start his tenure with the club. # of which were over 60% point percentage.
4 straight playoff seasons to start his tenure with the club.
Won a Stanley Cup.

Bringing that idea to the owner gets the GM looked at as a candidate to get fired.

https://www.hockey-reference.com/coa...erubcr01c.html

He pushed the right buttons his first year there. I supsect it's a combination of some veterans tuning out, and those same veterans being not that good, and overpaid a bit.