Blues fire Craig Berube, name Drew Bannister (upd: no longer interim) head coach

[Mike Liut]

Montgomery was coaching Dallas at that time

Oh shit. My bad

 

[STLegend]

Doesn't Ott run the power play?

Who's responsible for the assistant coaches?

 

[Em etah Eh]

Literally the first time I ever type the word "Bennington" on HF. You might want to revise your definition of obsession.

View attachment 782645

Maybe you spelled it correctly the other times?

 

[Dead Meat]

Who's responsible for the assistant coaches?

Armstrong in the end.

 

[HockeyVirus]

This presser is a disaster.

 

[FlyguyOX]

This presser is a disaster.

Cliffs?

Btw sucks to have a coach be the fall guy when the GM is clearly at fault.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

Might be time to blow it up, STL.

That’s the problem…can’t fully blow it up with a bunch of NTC’s/bad contracts.

 

[BleedBlue14]

That’s the problem…can’t fully blow it up with a bunch of NTC’s/bad contracts.

That paired with the reluctance to start over/the pride to have to compete from the top is going to make this rather difficult.

Don’t disagree with the decision to try a change at the head coach, but I also don’t think for a second Berube is to blame here. He’s probably 3rd in the realm of who is to blame.

 

[AyeBah]

I'm a big Berube fan, how could you not be after he helps win the first cup in franchise history.

But when your powerplay scores just 7 times in 83 attempts, then it's time for a coach to pack his shit and gtfo. Its f***ing embarrasing.

Ott, Steve is the guy you should be mad at. He was such a skill guy in the NHL, so logically he runs the PP.

 

[Blitzkrug]

St. Louis sealed its fate when they let Pietrangelo, who was (and still is) a legit top pairing defenseman because he wanted actual money after helping lead them to a cup (spare the thought!) walk and replaced him with...Torey Krug

Krug was a great player in his own right (still miss him) but it was so obviously a bad idea to give him that money in a role that expected more he's capable of. Now you have him and Faulk on the second pairing, neither of whom are exactly stellar in their own end.

That falls squarely on Armstrong and it's wild to me as an outsider he's been so safe with some pretty bad personnel decisions.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

The NHL should include coaching staff in the cap, Look at what all are getting paid and raise the cap by the avg salary. That way coaches can be traded, waived etc

 

[TMLeafer]

My favourite Berube anecdote from Jeremy Roenick's book 'JR'

Lmao thanks for sharing. Would be an interesting coaching technique too.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Cliffs?

Btw sucks to have a coach be the fall guy when the GM is clearly at fault.

My cliff notes:

* Looked exhausted, like "up all night, got little sleep" exhausted. Which, he didn't look anywhere near that exhausted when he fired Hitchcock or Yeo.
* Thought about firing Berube after the Columbus game. Probably one of the more confident statements he made in the entire press conference.
* Said Beurbe is too good of a coach not to be in the league, and he feels personally responsible.
* Got asked what he felt personally responsible for, didn't answer it for much of the response.
* Did admit the organization isn't in a better spot than where he found it.
* Really struggled to articulate why Berube had to go, struggled to blame the players [as he had when he fired Hitchcock and Yeo]
* Made a comment about going into last season thinking "it was the last dance" for the veteran players.
* Given a list of players no longer with the team, was asked if the team had lost its identity and conceded it had. [No follow-up challenging him on it.]
* Still not a retool or a rebuild, this is a "refocus."
* Had a comment about ignorance, arrogance and comparing rosters for the last 3 games and the Blues had the better roster and concluded with "I don't know how anyone thinks we should lose those last 3 games."
* "I look around the league, there's some teams that are ahead of us right now that I don't look on paper like wow, we don't have a chance to compete with them, ... maybe 3 or 4 teams, but not, not the whole league."
* Said he's not against buying players out. Huge statement, because he's repeatedly said over the years he doesn't believe in buying players out.
* Didn't show anywhere near the confidence with answers that he had even when he fired Hitchcock and Yeo.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Sounds like he's about to go scorched earth.

 

[EpochLink]

Ottawa, pick up the phone

 

[Nico Hischier]

DJ Smith somehow outlasts another coach and now one with a cup ring

Ottawa should fire smith and hire Berube

 

[Chainshot]

Sounds like he's about to go scorched earth.

Also sounds like he knows he's next.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

Isn't being named interim coach a little like being given the death penalty when you've not committed a crime?

 

[PROUD PAPA]

Stanley Cup victory incoming…

Have to admit, that would be amazing.

 

[stl76]

Ehh, I can still fault them for the Fabbri trade. You can get away with something like that if you have to get rid of him. But they didn't really have to get rid of him. They just abruptly traded an injury laden guy with a boatload of potential for a fringe NHL plug.

It was very obviously a “favor-to-the-player” trade. Armstrong has a history of trying to put players in good positions when he trades them. Look no further than the recent Bortuzzo trade.

As a Blues fan and a big Fabbri fan, I had no issue with that trade when it happened and have no issue with it today. Glad it worked out for him.

 

[Rebels57]

Heck of a run for Chief in St. Louis. Didn't think he had it in him after seeing his tenure in Philadelphia.

 

[Em etah Eh]

Isn't being named interim coach a little like being given the death penalty when you've not committed a crime?

I'd say coaching in general is a look at the menu but you just can't eat.

 

[AslanRH]

Sounds like he's about to go scorched earth.

he better hope his 8 vets with full NTCs feel like cooperating, or it will just be a mild singeing of the garden.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

I'd say coaching in general is a look at the menu but you just can't eat.

You topped me.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

The coach is always the fall guy. Best of luck to Craig. He'll be back.

That said, the magical run from last place on Jan 2 to the playoffs was more about an unheralded Jordan Binnington providing a Vezina like performance (1.89 GAA, .927 SVP) in his rookie season than any coaching magic from Berube.