After a depressing fourth straight loss to Detroit last night Blues fans woke up with more depressing news this morning that our fearless leader, Craig Berube, got the boot late last night after the game.
We can’t really say this is shocking. Berube came into this season with the highest odds of any NHL coach to get canned this season, and after 2 months of the worst powerplay I’ve ever seen in the NHL + four straight losses to non-contending teams it finally happened.
What I can say however is the current state of the Blues has almost nothing to do with Chief. He may not have been the solution to the problem (he still hadn’t changed the power play strategy up after ~30 games of it being a wheelchair with pedals). No the pretty abysmal state of the Blues falls at the feet of the guy pictured above, Blues’ GM Doug Armstrong.
Ever since the cup win in 2019, I cannot think of a single move the guy has made that hasn’t aged horribly.
- Dishing out multiple $6 million + per year contracts to defensemen, not a single one of which has come close to earning that type of money. To put it in perspective the Blues are top 5 in the league in terms of how much money we spend on our defense according to spotrac.com, but are bottom 10 in the league in terms of goals per game. Not to mention offensively, we’re 7th worst in the NHL for goals scored per game. Which leads to the next questionable move.
- The Blues might not have a single game this year where we can say we have the best forward on the ice. Our best forward is Robert Thomas, who I am a big fan of, but in reality it’s tough to compete against teams putting out Nate Mackinnon or Kyle Connor on the PP vs a guy who’s yet to break 30 goals in his career. Even when we play a team like Arizona, I’d take Clayton Keller over anyone on our team.Our entire forward group is made up of depth players, as in guys most teams would want on their 3rd or 4th line. Heart and desire can only get you so far when the skill/talent gap is miles wide between you and your own division rivals.
- Letting Alex Pietrangelo go, essentially swapping him for Torey Krug. This is probably his worst move, and the move that started this downward trend for the Blues. Krug has arguably been the Blues’ worst defenseman this season. He’s weak in front of the net, constantly gets beat outside, and he’s supposed to be a power play specialist (we currently have the worst power play in hockey). Pietrangelo on the other hand is in year 4 of his 7 year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights, and was indisputably the best defenseman on the cup champs last season. You need a bonafide #1 defenseman to win a Stanley Cup. And we let ours walk, our first ever captain to lift the cup, for a guy who’s now playing at such a low level we can’t even trade him. All because Pietrangelo wanted a No Movement Clause in his contract.
Like I mentioned above Berube may not be the solution to the Blues’ current problems, but Doug Armstrong is who drove the Blues to this destination. He essentially gave Berube the keys to a 2017 Toyota Prius and told Chief to go win the Daytona 500 with it.
So now we’re here. The coach of Blues’ AHL Affiliate the Springfield Thunderbirds, Drew Bannister will be taking over starting Thursday against Ottawa. I’m sure Bannister is a solid coach, but I view this as more of a Hail Mary by Doug Armstrong to save his own ass. Tom Stillman is a knowledgable owner, so I’d assume he is able to see the current roster and understand the real issue is probably the person who constructed it in the first place.
With that all being said, this is a sad day for Blues fans. Berube is arguably the main reason we won our first ever cup in 2019, giving us all memories that we’ll likely never forget. The Blues may win another cup one day, but there might not ever be a better pre-Game 7 speech than this one.
The Morning Skate 