On The Second Day Of Christmas The St. Louis Blues Gave To Me

Two different head coaches. The St. Louis Blues have been in flux behind the bench ever since Ken Hitchcock was fired and Mike Yeo took over, he since has been fired, and now it is the Craig Berube era in St. Louis.

The Mike Yeo era did not last long in St. Louis and for good reason. Many fans got caught up in the miraculous run that the Blues went on when Yeo replaced Hitchcock midway through the 2016-2017 season.

However, at the end of the day, Yeo’s time in St. Louis was not up to par with the organization’s standards. Altogether, Yeo accumulated experience that equals to two years. He took over for Hitchcock midseason, then the following year Yeo had the entire season in 2017-2018 to fully implement his scheme.

During his first full season, Yeo’s Blues failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. Many thought that the offseason additions would be enough to look past the failures in the regular season from the previous year.

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Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak, David Perron, and Patrick Maroon were all brought in via trade and free agency to change the culture of the team for the better.

All of these players have had proven track records in the NHL, and the Blues did not foresee O’Reilly not only becoming a point-per-game player but the most productive Blue on the roster.

All of these acquisitions were not enough for Yeo and the Blues. The team got off to one of the worst starts in franchise history, and it could not go understated how much a change was needed early on in the year.

The Blues eventually did move on from Yeo and promoted Berube to interim head coach. Since Berube was promoted, not much has changed for St. Louis. Watching the Blues, they are a much more physical team and part of that is due to personnel, but a lot of it is due to the man giving the orders behind the bench.

There is, however, a problem that even Berube cannot figure out. The Blues are still not winning games. They are playing better as of late, but still not nearly good enough to get back in the race in the Western Conference.

St. Louis is seemingly teasing their fans by winning big games against the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators, just to lay an egg in the very next game by 5+ goals.

It’s possible that Berube does not last the entire year in St. Louis. Remember, he has not been named the full-time coach of the St. Louis Blues. If they so choose, the Blues can hire someone else and then relegate Berube back to being the bench coach.

Many Blues fans got their wish when it came to the firing of Mike Yeo, the ownership group and Doug Armstrong gave Blues fans a Christmas present of two different head coaches this season.