St. Louis Blues give Craig Berube a second chance behind the bench

It’s been three years since Craig Berube held a head coaching job in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues are giving him a second chance. 

After a disappointing 7-9-3 start to the 2018-19 season, the St. Louis Blues have done the expected and fired Mike Yeo as their head coach. A summer filled with roster changes created great expectations for them. Yeo clearly wasn’t the guy to help the Blues meet them, so he was fired. Last season’s collapse certainly didn’t help his case either.

For the time being, former associate head coach Craig Berube will serve as the interim head coach. Berube has served as an assistant for the Blues during the 2017-18 season after serving as their AHL head coach for the Chicago Wolves.

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This isn’t his first rodeo, as he served as the Philadelphia Flyers head coach from Oct. 7, 2013 to April 17, 2015. Berube led the Flyers to a 42-27-10 record in 2013-14, helping them make the postseason after a 0-3-0 start. However, he was relieved of his duties after missing the playoffs in the 2014-15 season.

Since then, Berube has been serving in the Blues organization. He was the head coach of their AHL team during the 2016-17 season. After leading them to the Conference Semifinals in the Calder Cup Playoffs, Berube got a promotion to the NHL, serving as the Blues associate head coach.

For the second time in his career, he will be tasked with helping an underachieving team get back on track. But unlike in 2013, Berube won’t have much time to work with. In 2013, he was hired after three games. This time, Berube has just a shade over 75 percent of the season to work with.

He’ll also have to deal with an extremely competitive Central Division, which features two of the strongest Stanley Cup contenders (Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets), a team on the rise (Colorado Avalanche), and the Minnesota Wild. The Blues are nine points out of a top-three spot in the division and seven points away from a wildcard spot.

Berube is only the interim head coach, so his future with the Blues isn’t set in stone. However, if he can quickly turn the team around, he could force a removal of the interim label. If nothing else, Berube could prove not just to the NHL, but to himself as well, that he deserves to be an NHL head coach.

He’ll be put under the fire immediately, as the Blues next three games are a Wednesday night game at Nashville and a weekend doubleheader at home against the Predators and Jets. Berube will, however, have a bit of a break of that, as his team won’t play again until the 28th.

The Blues certainly have talent. They have a quietly impressive core of centers with Brayden Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, and Tyler Bozak. Each has at least 10 points. Berube’s main task will be diagnosing what’s ailing the defense, which has allowed the ninth most goals in the NHL.

Yeo wasn’t able to find the right pairings despite having a pretty talented blueline featuring Alex Pietrangelo, Vince Dunn, and Colton Parayko. Nor did he get good goaltending, though giving Jake Allen a leash that was longer than the Nile River didn’t help his cause.

Yeo couldn’t get the Blues to meet their great expectations. Berube has turned around a team’s season once before. The Blues are hoping his lightning can strike twice.