Is Blues head coach Craig Berube already on the hot seat?
As the 2023-24 season rolls around, so do predictions.
Some pan out, some completely miss the mark, but this is why predictions can be fun for a variety of reasons.
The St. Louis Blues, who missed the playoffs for the first time last season since 2017-18 at 37-38-7, went from a 109-point team and one that pushed the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche as hard as anyone before succumbing in six games in the second round, took a drastic dip and fell to 81 points in 2022-23.
In a poll cast with 34 The Hockey News voters, Blues coach Craig Berube took in the most votes (nine) among the pollsters to be the coach on the hot seat, although Mike Babcock, who tied with Minnesota Wild's Dean Evason for fourth-most votes with three each, has already been fired before even coaching one game with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, a season in which Berube took over for Mike Yeo 20 games into the season, the Blues have actually been pretty good but with limited playoff success.
Following their Cup run, the Blues actually were set on a course to seriously defend their title in 2019-20; they led the Western Conference with 94 points through 71 games (42-19-10), but COVID-19 completely altered the landscape of not only the NHL but the entire world landscape, and the Blues bowed out in the first round of what turned out to be the bubble playoffs in Edmonton in six games against the Vancouver Canucks.
In 2020-21, a season shortened to 56 games, the Blues squeaked into the playoffs at 27-20-9 and were swept out in the first round by the Avalanche.
In 2021-22, they returned to form at 49-22-11, finished third in the Central Division behind the Avalanche and Wild, knocked off the Wild in the first round in six games before falling to Colorado in six. On Feb. 9 of that season, Berube signed a three-year extension to keep him in St. Louis through the 2024-25 season.
And last season, they jumped out strong, winning their first three games before an unexpected eight-game slide that they never really recovered from, dipping to sixth in the Central and missing the playoffs altogether.
Berube still has two years remaining on his contract, and the Blues, being a cap ceiling roster, would be wise not to slumber through another start and stretch that they endured last season despite the roster looking drastically different since winning the Cup.
We've already seen Blues general manager Doug Armstrong pull the rug out from under Yeo 19 games into the 2018-19 season after going 7-9-3.
Coach on the hot seat, votes:
* Craig Berube, St. Louis Blues (9)
* DJ Smith, Ottawa Senators (6)
* Mike Sullivan, Pittsburgh Penguins (4)
* Mike Babcock, Columbus Blue Jackets; Dean Evason, Minnesota Wild (3)
* Lane Lambert, New York Islanders (2)
* Six others received one vote each
