Blues’ Berube raised the bar for NHL coaches. Will the carousel someday turn on him?
The St. Louis Blues may have stumbled in their attempt to record a perfect homestand on Wednesday night, but they were at least partially responsible for the day’s biggest news in the hockey world.
Just two seasons removed from taking an expansion team to the Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights fired head coach Gerard Gallant on Wednesday morning. He was replaced by Peter DeBoer, who was himself fired by the San Jose Sharks just more than a month ago. The change marked the seventh such undertaking by an NHL team thus far this season and the 15th since the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.
One of those 15 changes is the elevation of Craig Berube to permanent head coach the Blues from the interim title he held through the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final.
For teams harboring championship desires but dealing with the impatience of high expectations, it’s easy to see how the impetus for change began; three of the last 10 Stanley Cup champions made a switch during the season, with Mike Sullivan taking over for the 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins and Darryl Sutter being handed the 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings.
Sutter, of course, is now gone from his job despite also winning in 2014. Sullivan won two championships in back-to-back fashion, and having been hired in December of 2015, is now the fifth-longest-tenured head coach in the NHL. Berube, named to an interim position just 13 months ago, has had the keys to his office longer than 14 of his compatriots. It’s that exchange of keys which may have sent the whole carousel spinning.
The worst-to-first 2019 Blues represented a story for the ages, but they also created a perception problem in front offices around the league. Nevermind that the Blues were a team comprised of top end talent struggling to gel and found themselves backed by inadequate goaltending during the first part of the season.
Fans of 30 other teams saw an organization climb from the depths, and management teams which may have previously preached patience or at least looked soberly upon their own chances were feeling unusual amounts of pressure.
NHL general managers are a group of survivors who understand how to transfer that pressure from themselves to those on the ice.
While it was the emergence of Jordan Binnington that truly was the turning point for the championship Blues, most teams lack an All-Star goalie toiling in anonymity in the minors who’s bound to bust out if given a chance. It’s difficult to find an uncut gem in the rough, but comparatively easier to make even a superficial change behind the bench.
It’s difficult to argue that Berube and the Blues had a direct effect on some of the coaching changes which were spurred by circumstance.
Bill Peters resigned in Calgary in November after acknowledging using racial slurs and fostering other verbal abuse while coaching players in the American Hockey League. Jim Montgomery was fired by the Dallas Stars in December after an as-of-yet unexplained incident; this month, he acknowledged that he was seeking treatment for alcoholism.
When the Devils replaced John Hynes with Alain Nasreddine on Dec. 3, they went out of their way to explain that it was purely a hockey decision. Hynes, they emphasized, was an upstanding citizen who was adored by the people he worked with. They just didn’t think he was good at his job.
They needn’t have worried. Hynes was hired by Nashville to replace Peter Laviolette just 35 days later.
DeBoer, too, spent 35 days collecting checks without responsibility before Wednesday’s shocking announcement from the Golden Knights. That he would be Gallant’s replacement and become the second coach in franchise history is particularly jarring; Gallant famously called DeBoer a “clown” following complaints about officiating in last year’s postseason.
If Vegas has developed a strong rivalry during its short time in the league, it’s with San Jose, who until a month ago had been coached only by the new Vegas coach since the Golden Knights entered the league. The fan whiplash has been strong; imagine if the Cardinals had hired Dusty Baker in 2006 to replace Tony LaRussa.
Berube has won 68 regular season games and another 16 in the playoffs since taking over as head coach of the Blues. None of the new hires are likely to replicate that stunning success, but some are likely to provide a bump to teams which may have been foundering. Calgary’s Geoff Ward and Toronto’s Sheldon Keefe, for example, have their teams playing much closer to preseason expectations than Peters and Mike Babcock were able to wring out.
Mike Yeo, the man Berube replaced, returned to St. Louis on Wednesday night as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. His team left with a victory, providing him with a fresh memory to replace a shutout loss to Los Angeles and a summary dismissal in his last trip to 14th and Clark. He can use this new memory as part of a springboard to a personal reinvention that should prepare him for his next head coaching job.
That job will certainly come. The NHL coaching carousel never, ever stops spinning.
