St. Louis Blues fire head coach Craig Berube; Drew Bannister named interim coach

The St. Louis Blues announced after tonight's 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings that they have fired head coach Craig Berube. They also announced that they have promoted Drew Bannister from their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, to the position in an interim capacity.

Bannister, 49, has spent three years in the Blues organization, all of them as the Thunderbirds head coach. In total, Bannister has 14 years of coaching experience, including two seasons as a player-coach overseas in Great Britain.

Tonight's loss was the Blues' fourth straight, and their 13-14-1 record on the season has them sitting sixth in the Central Division, one point out of the last wildcard spot in the West. Even so, MoneyPuck's model only grants the Blues a seven percent chance of making the postseason, the sixth-lowest mark in the NHL in their estimation.

They struggle to control the run of play at even strength with among the worst territorial marks in the league, have the NHL's second-least effective power play, and a penalty kill that's below average in spite of getting strong goaltending this year from Jordan Binnington in particular.

The Blues are a team that, by every reasonable measure, isn't just bad but bad in the ways we usually attribute directly to the coaching staff. Even if this isn't the same roster that Berube helped lead to the first Stanley Cup in franchise history back in 2019. So, the bell tolled for him.

Berube, 57, leaves the Blues having coached them to a 206-131-44 record in 381 regular season contests and a 24-27 record in the postseason.

The Blues next game is Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators.