ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues fired Craig Berube as coach following a 6-4 loss against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, replacing him with Drew Bannister, coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League.
Let's look at Berube's timeline in St. Louis, where he was brought in as an associate coach under Mike Yeo on June 15, 2017.
* Coaches first game as head coach on Nov. 21, 2018, a 4-1 loss at the Nashville Predators.
* Earns first win as Blues coach on Nov. 23, 2018, a 6-2 win against the Predators at Enterprise Center.
* On Jan. 3, 2019, Blues were in last place in the entire NHL (15-18-4) and recalled Jordan Binnington to make first NHL start on Jan. 7, 2019, a 3-0 win at the Philadelphia Flyers.
* The Blues reeled off a franchise-record 11-game winning streak Jan. 23-Feb. 19, 2019 to go from worst to improve to 32-22-5 and vault into third place in the Central Division.
* The Blues finished the 2018-19 regular-season 9-1-2, good for a 45-28-9 record (99 points and a third-place finish in the division).
* The Blues defeated the Winnipeg Jets in six games in the conference first round, then topped the Dallas Stars in seven games in the conference second round, then pulled away from the San Jose Sharks in six games in the Western Conference Final before dispatching the Boston Bruins in seven games, winning the Stanley Cup June 12, 2019.
* In the 2019-20 season as defending Stanley Cup champions, Berube had the Blues on the right path towards a repeat when they used a seven-game winning streak from Oct. 27-Nov. 9, 2019 to improve record to 12-3-3.
* An eight-game winning streak from Dec. 12-29, 2019 ensued leaving the Blues at 26-8-6, first in the Western Conference.
* Another eight-game winning streak ensued from Feb. 18-March 3, 2020, and the Blues finished first in the COVID-19 shortened season 42-19-10, good for first in the Western Conference.
* However, when the NHL shortened its season because of COVID-19, the league went on pause until August, and the Blues played three preliminary round games and went 0-2-1, were reseeded to face the Vancouver Canucks in the first round before losing in six games. Berube used both Binnington, who struggled in that series, and Jake Allen, who was replaced by Binnington as the No. 1 the year the Blues won the Cup.
* The 2020-21 season seemed like the beginning of the end in the COVID-19 shortened season that started Jan. 13, 2021. The season was laced with a mini series schedule, including seven games in a row against the Arizona Coyotes in which the Blues went 3-3-1 Feb. 2-15, 2021.
* That season, the Blues had season-high four-game winning streaks three times but also endured a seven-game losing streak (0-6-1), finishing 27-20-9.
* They were swept in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche in four games.
* The Blues got back on the horse in 2021-22, opening the season winning their first five games and set their benchmark for that season going on a 16-game point streak (14-0-2) March 28-April 24, 2022 and finished with a 49-22-11 record, good for 109 points and a third-place finish in the Central Division.
* Berube was on the final year of his contract and was extended for three seasons on Feb. 9, 2022.
* The Blues opened the playoffs winning their first series since winning the Cup, defeating the Minnesota Wild in six games, then falling to the Colorado Avalanche in the second round after Binnington was injured in Game 3 on May 21 when Nazem Kadri fell on him and he sprained his MCL.
* Last season, things started well for Berube and the Blues, when they won their first three games and things were going smooth. But an eight-game losing streak followed dropping them to 3-8-0, which was followed by a seven-game winning streak to put them at 10-8-0.
* The Blues could never gain much momentum, enduring a four-game, five-game and six-game losing streak (0-4-2) before ending the season losing three in a row to finish below .500 (37-38-7) for the first time since 2007-08 (33-36-13). They missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
* Renewed promise came this season, although expectations were curbed. The Blues opened alternating wins and losses, going 3-3-1, then alternated wins and losses (4-4-0) for eight games prior to this season-long four-game losing streak in which the Blues were outscored 20-10, and thus, drop the ax on Berube's tenure as coach, finishing with the third-most wins in franchise history behind Joel Quenneville (307) and Ken Hitchcock (248) with a 206-132-44 in parts of six seasons.
