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The struggle of St. Louis Blues fired coach Craig Berube on Tuesday night.
Drew Bannister, coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds, St. Louis’ AHL affiliate, was named the team’s interim coach by president of hockey operations Doug Armstrong. Bannister will travel to St. Louis on Wednesday and will play his first game behind the bench Thursday when the Blues host the Ottawa Senators.
Berube, 57, had a three-year contract that ran through the 2024-25 season. He led the Blues to the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history in the 2018-19 season.
The Blues fell to 13-14-1 on the season with a 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, making it three in the series. It’s their fourth consecutive loss and sixth in their last 8 games.
“We have to get it, you have to play the right way to get it. Do the little things right. We scored enough to win the game. But in the end, we didn’t keep the edge. in front of our net. good luck tonight,” Berube said afterward.
St. Louis is one point out of last place in the Western Conference. The Blues are 26th in goals per game and 22nd in goals per game this season. They have suffered from a lack of production from top players, such as Jordan Kyrou (5 goals in 28 games).
“It’s easy to see from the outside,” Blues forward Kevin Hayes said afterwards. “Back to work, regroup, back to our structure and what we did when we won games.”
This is Berube’s sixth year as the coach of the Blues, and he is 206-132-44 during that time. He was employed in 19 games in the 2018-19 season and orchestrated one of the most impressive turnarounds in NHL history: Going to the Western Conference in January to win the Cup. June.
The Blues made the playoffs for the next three seasons but only won one game. They missed the postseason last season.
Berube previously coached the Philadelphia Flyers from 2013 to ’15.
Bannister, 49, spent the past three seasons with the Blues’ AHL team, making the playoffs the past two seasons. That included a trip to the Calder Cup finals in his first season. He was an NHL defenseman for six seasons from 1995 to 2001, playing 164 games.