The St. Louis Blues have officially hit the end of the Craig Berube era. After the club’s 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the team announced they were parting ways with the only coach to bring a Stanley Cup championship season to the city of St. Louis. While this should not have been the reason to keep Berube with the Blues, it is certainly among the reasons why he is and will remain one of the most beloved coaches in franchise history – with the announcement and parting of Berube, the front office also announced that Springfield Thunderbirds head coach, Drew Bannister, would be promoted to the NHL to take over Berube’s position.
With the surprising removal of Berube, what are the expectations for Bannister and the Blues moving forward?
Drew Bannister Tapped as Interim Head Coach
The expectation for the Blues heading into the 2023-24 season was that they were going to be among the middle third in the NHL and third in the Central Division. Ahead of Bannister and the Blues’ first game together, they currently sit 23rd in the NHL’s standings with a minus-14 goal differential, 26th in the league in goals for per game (2.82), 24th in goals allowed per game (3.32), the second-worst overall power play (8.4%), and a penalty-kill ranked 20th in the league (78.5%). For any coach, let alone one who is starting his NHL career, this is a daunting task.
The 49-year-old Bannister has spent the past three seasons with the Thunderbirds with a combined 93-58-19 regular-season record. Under his leadership, he has also guided the Thunderbirds to consecutive playoff appearances, including 2021-22, when they won the Eastern Conference and reached the Calder Cup Final.
Bannister brings a wealth of experience at the minor-league level having coached over 150 regular season games, and 164 games of playing experience as an NHL defenseman from 1996-2002. He has coached a number of the current members of the Blues squad including players like Jordan Binnington, Jordan Kyrou, Sammy Blais, Jake Neighbours, and Scott Perunovich. With many players on the team underperforming, he will be tasked with reviving their spirits and accountability moving forward.
As mentioned in a tweet earlier in the day by Darren Dreger, “As the @OHLHoundPower can attest Drew Bannister is a very structured coach. He will get the Blues players’ attention. He put in his time. Whether he’s a longterm fit in St Louis has yet to be seen.”
Bannister is One of Blues Head Coaching Candidates
“Drew Bannister will come in on an interim basis and serve as head coach starting with tomorrow’s game,” Armstrong said. “We’ll start the process in looking for a permanent replacement. There’s no timeline on that and there will be no updates on that as I’m going through it. We’ll announce it when we announce it. We went through this five or six years ago. Good play will dictate a lot of things. Bad play will dictate a lot of things at a player level and all levels of an organization.”
Ahead of his promotion, Armstrong talked to Bannister before he had his official conversation and ultimate parting of ways with Berube. In the conversation with Bannister, Armstrong told him that he is looking for an increased compete level and increased accountability. Bannister agreed to coach the Blues knowing that he is not a lock for the job and will have the opportunity to earn the job.
What Can Bannister Accomplish That Berube Cannot?
Perhaps one of the easiest things for Bannister to bring to this club is simply a fresh voice. While players can deny it, repeatedly hearing the same message from a coach or individual can become tiresome and stale. By bringing in a new head coach, whether he is repeating the same message as Berube or not, Bannister can say it in a different way that may resonate better with the players. With no previous NHL coaching history to his name, he can only be himself and continue to do what has worked in the past during his time in the American Hockey League (AHL) and hope that it resonates with these players.
Bannister has been with the Blues since the Thunderbirds were known as the San Antonio Rampage and is familiar with the organization, the thought processes, tactics, and a number of the players that have come up through the organization. He’s going to have the attention of the players who have struggled and hopefully have the confidence in them to turn their game around once more.
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While Berube was able to coach and time after time find the right formation and line combinations to create a winning formula, the Stanley Cup era of Berube hockey is gone and done with. The roster that he was presented with during the 2018-19 season has all but nearly moved on from St. Louis. Armstrong was stuck looking for a new direction and one of, if not his only option at this point was to remove the head coach from the equation in hopes of turning his team’s season around.
This season, there has been an instant spark with the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild upon the firing of their head coaches, and it appears the Blues are looking for a similar response with their players. Is it a long-term solution beyond 2023-24? That’s yet to be seen.