Rutherford: Craig Berube Unofficially Named Head Coach

[TheDizee]

only coach id want over berube right now is darryl sutter but they both fit the same mold really.

blues needed a no nonsense coach that would turn babies into men so i am glad they got 1, one way or another.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I think the assistant staff they put around Berube can have a big impact on how he performs. The front office obviously felt that way when they brought in Robinson for his stint. The guys there now are young and relatively unproven. I’m curious if they would re-assign or change the assistants at all. But maybe they’d view this as proven experience for those guys. The NHL playoffs are like dog years for teams facing adversity and strategy adjustments.

 

[EastonBlues22]

Have you ever hired anyone? The idea that an “interview” is more valuable than a wholistic approach to reviewing someone’s previous job performance runs counter to all evidence.

What?

I never said is was more valuable, but that doesn't mean it is valueless, either. It IS almost universally part of the hiring process for a reason. Often times more than one, and by multiple different people, depending on the position and the organization. Even if an interview-less process is the standard in your own organization, which I doubt, we know for a fact that it's not the standard for the process of hiring NHL coaches.

To say that there's nothing to be gained from it, or the process hasn't been abridged by bypassing it, is disingenuous.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Berube is the guy.

If you want to open up the interview process to others, I would suspect the pool of applicants will be small given that most of the top coaches know Berube has a lock on this. You may get some up-and-coming coaches to interview just to get more name recognition or practice their interviewing skills.

I do quite a bit of hiring myself. You often have a top candidate or two and then lower tiers of candidates. It never hurts to interview a bunch of folks. There’s a small chance it reveals an outsider who might be better, but more often it just reinforces that your top choice is indeed the best guy out there for the job. Then you know you’ve done your due diligence. Where I work you must always have two or more candidates interviewed in order to fill a job req.

 

[MissouriMook]

Is anyone particularly familiar with Bannister’s background? I wonder if flipping him and Ott would be a consideration if we believed Bannister could fix the one area that still plagues Berube, the power play.

 

[Deko]

Paul McFarland was responsible for the 2nd best power play in the league in Florida. That's one interesting alternative if the Blues bring in a new assistant.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

What?

I never said is was more valuable, but that doesn't mean it is valueless, either. It IS almost universally part of the hiring process for a reason. Often times more than one, and by multiple different people, depending on the position and the organization. Even if an interview-less process is the standard in your own organization, which I doubt, we know for a fact that it's not the standard for the process of hiring NHL coaches.

To say that there's nothing to be gained from it, or the process hasn't been abridged by bypassing it, is disingenuous.

You obviously never hire a person off the street without interviewing them, but what you get in that interview is by definition limited. The evaluation you can make of someone who has been serving in interim capacity is far more thorough and accurate. The idea that we could spend a couple hours with Candidate X and based upon that interview accurately determine he will be better choice for the position than the man who has been serving in it for 6 months and who you have interacted with probably dailly and on a deep level and has done phenomenal job and help turned the entire team around and has been universally lauded for the outstanding performance is ludicrous.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I think the assistant staff they put around Berube can have a big impact on how he performs. The front office obviously felt that way when they brought in Robinson for his stint. The guys there now are young and relatively unproven. I’m curious if they would re-assign or change the assistants at all. But maybe they’d view this as proven experience for those guys. The NHL playoffs are like dog years for teams facing adversity and strategy adjustments.

True. Don't think we should be looking to remove Ott or VR. Would like someone with offensive background to supplement staff and help with PP. We are an assistant short versus when season started, so can just add someone without benching Ott.

 

[EastonBlues22]

You obviously never hire a person off the street without interviewing them, but what you get in that interview is by definition limited. The evaluation you can make of someone who has been serving in interim capacity is far more thorough and accurate. The idea that we could spend a couple hours with Candidate X and based upon that interview accurately determine he will be better choice for the position than the man who has been serving in it for 6 months and who you have interacted with probably dailly and on a deep level and has done phenomenal job and help turned the entire team around and has been universally lauded for the outstanding performance is ludicrous.

What part of "even if Berube is the clear front-runner" don't you get?

What I think is ludicrous is the notion that you shouldn't do what you normally would do simply because you don't think anything could possibly change your mind. That's the very definition of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you not understand the dangers of those?

If you go through the process with an open mind and you think Berube's the best man for the job, then you pick Berube. Congratulations, you've done your job. If you don't go through the process and you pick Berube because you're assuming there couldn't possibly be anyone better, then you haven't done your job. At least not well.

We're going in circles here. You can continue this conversation if you want, but I'm done on the topic until after the season. There are so many better things to think about right now.

 

[simon IC]

I just don't see why a decision has to be made right now. Everybody is on an emotional high. I would rather sit back and re-evaluate in the offseason, or even later. Has Berube done a great job? Absolutely! Should he be our coach going into next season? Absolutely. Not doing so could be disastrous, as others have pointed out. Would I sign Berube to a multi-year deal at the end of this season? Ah, there is the crux of the matter. No, I really would not. Let's sign him for one more year and see what happens next season and then re-evaluate.

 

[BlueDream]

What part of "even if Berube is the clear front-runner" don't you get?

What I think is ludicrous is the notion that you shouldn't do what you normally would do simply because you don't think anything could possibly change your mind. That's the very definition of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you not understand the dangers of those?

If you go through the process with an open mind and you think Berube's the best man for the job, then you pick Berube. Congratulations, you've done your job. If you don't go through the process and you pick Berube because you're assuming there couldn't possibly be anyone better, then you haven't done your job. At least not well.

We're going in circles here. You can continue this conversation if you want, but I'm done on the topic until after the season. There are so many better things to think about right now.

I still don't understand why you're so hell bent on playing devil's advocate here.

Blueston is right. If you're a company - you can be anything, let's just use a sales team as an example - and you have an open position for a manager and you have someone in-house that has already taken on a bigger role and has proven to be really good and deserving of moving up into that position, that person is going to get the job. That company most likely isn't going to hire someone from the outside.

This happens literally all the time. Any company will tell you they prefer to promote from within. If they just continually go outside the organization and nobody ever gets the chance to move up, nobody will want to accept a job from that company in the first place, because what's the point of not getting rewarded if you perform above expectations?

The Blues now have a chance to win their most postseason games EVER.

The idea that they would even think for one second about hiring somebody else now is simply ridiculous. You're making this a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Berube has been a good head coach for us. So you stick with him. Period. Done.

 

[BlueDream]

I'm not "blaming" Berube for anything.

My point was simply that it was a very close series that easily could have gone either way, right on up to the end. Regardless of how well they played that last game (and they certainly didn't play that well every game), they still needed a bit of luck there at the end to move on.

We look at playoff series as binary accomplishments. A team moves on (success) or they don't (failure). One is really good, and one is really bad, etc. The two results are perceived in extremely different ways, and as a result we tend to dramatically overstate the differences between them. In reality, there's a ton of confounding factors in play that affect results across years (such as quality of competition, quality of own team, etc.), and the margin between advancing and not is often incredibly small, anyway.

Berube making it to the third round isn't as special (relative to his peers) as it feels to us fans, and it certainly doesn't mean he's a special coach.

Every single team that makes it this far has some luck on their side. That's the way the game goes. Hockey is so fast that a bounce here or deflection there can be the difference. So again, no real point to bring that up.

Your 3rd paragraph, I agree. But we've beat really good teams (Jets, Stars, now possibly Sharks) who we didn't quite match up well against in the regular season. And we have faced adversity in all 3 series. So far, we have been able to bounce back each time - which we didn't always see under our previous coaches. I think that is a huge credit to Berube that isn't being acknowledged.

Yes, the Blues making it to the 3rd round is special. How many coaches have taken over like Berube did and took their team this far? It's not a long list. Hey, good thing the Penguins stuck with Mike Sullivan instead of interviewing outside candidates, eh? Looked like that worked out as they won back-to-back years. You continue to overlook this and act like making it to the 3rd round is easy. Berube has already accomplished more in his first year than Hitchcock/Yeo did in like 7 years combined. Maybe you shouldn't take it for granted. That would be a wise thing to remember. The Blues literally just tied the most wins they've ever had in the postseason and you're over here saying it's not that special. Yeah, with our history, it definitely is. So again the decision continues to be a no-brainer unless you just want to keep throwing out very petty arguments.

 

[ScratchCatFever]

True. Don't think we should be looking to remove Ott or VR. Would like someone with offensive background to supplement staff and help with PP. We are an assistant short versus when season started, so can just add someone without benching Ott.

I agree with this completely. Assistants get there share of criticism and conversely don't get their share of gratitude for things they do help push the right buttons of the team, especially someone who is only a couple years removed from the game that was endeared by his teammates when he was active. Ott is that guy.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

What part of "even if Berube is the clear front-runner" don't you get?

What I think is ludicrous is the notion that you shouldn't do what you normally would do simply because you don't think anything could possibly change your mind. That's the very definition of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you not understand the dangers of those?

If you go through the process with an open mind and you think Berube's the best man for the job, then you pick Berube. Congratulations, you've done your job. If you don't go through the process and you pick Berube because you're assuming there couldn't possibly be anyone better, then you haven't done your job. At least not well.

We're going in circles here. You can continue this conversation if you want, but I'm done on the topic until after the season. There are so many better things to think about right now.

By your logic you should conduct coaching search every season. Always interview other candidates to see if there is somebody better than your existing coach.

 

[hullderko]

Which other teams will be most interested in Berube that could make things interesting for us trying to retain him?

 

[Majorityof1]

Which other teams will be most interested in Berube that could make things interesting for us trying to retain him?

I believe Ducks, Oilers, and Sens are the only 3 teams with actual openings. Ducks had their GM finish the year on bench. Sens coach has the interim tag. Oilers announced Hitchcock would not be back when they announced their new GM. So 3 teams for sure on the market, and I think Ducks could have interest. They reportedly want someone who works well with youth, and Berube did well in Chicago with the youngsters and has gotten a lot out of younger players like Thomas, Dunn and Barbie. Although their AHL coach Eakin is a front-runner for the job.

Another team could still fire their coach and create an opening. I'd say Boudreau is the only one that jumps out at me as on the hot seat.

Lots of coaches have been hired recently, and such are safe. Sabres, Panthers, Kings, and Flyers all hired coaches once the season was over. Blackhawks made their hire in November. I doubt they will change their mind so soon. 2nd round playoff teams like the Canes, Avalanche, Stars, Sharks, Islanders, Canadians, and Blue Jackets are probably safe. I'd have said Torts in on the hot seat but sweeping Tampa probably clears him. First round losers like Calgary, Tampa, Nashville, Winnipeg, Washington, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vegas are probably content based on history and regular season for now although Maurice could be warm.

That's 24 teams (15 playoff, 3 openings, 5 recent hires and 1 hot seat). Plus us. That Arizona, Detroit, NJD, Montreal, NYR, and Vancouver. Tocchet (Ari) and Julien (Mon) have had less than 2 seasons and overachieved this year by pushing for a playoff spot with a suspect roster. I'd say they are safe. Blashill just signed a 2-year extention in April so he is safe as houses for now, although he would have been a hot seat guess otherwise. Quinn (NYR) only had this year which was a rebuilding year, so he probably has some rope. Green is working well with the younger players in Vancouver and showed improvement in his 2 years, so he too probably has rope. Hynes (NJD) may be on the hot seat as well. He has had 4 years and never been better than 5th in the division, missing playoffs 3 of the 4 years. But I have heard no rumors.

TLDR: 3 coach openings (Ana, Edm, Ott), 1-2 (Minn, NJ) hot seat candidates but lots of teams have hired/extended new coaches over the past 1-2 years and will probably stick with them.

 

[Brian39]

I just don't see why a decision has to be made right now. Everybody is on an emotional high. I would rather sit back and re-evaluate in the offseason, or even later. Has Berube done a great job? Absolutely! Should he be our coach going into next season? Absolutely. Not doing so could be disastrous, as others have pointed out. Would I sign Berube to a multi-year deal at the end of this season? Ah, there is the crux of the matter. No, I really would not. Let's sign him for one more year and see what happens next season and then re-evaluate.

So who are you hiring instead of Berube then? Because his agent isn't letting him sign a 1 year deal. Even if we lose the next 2 games, he has proven enough that 1 of the 3 teams still without a head coach would offer him a mutli-year deal.

 

[PiggySmalls]

I believe Ducks, Oilers, and Sens are the only 3 teams with actual openings. Ducks had their GM finish the year on bench. Sens coach has the interim tag. Oilers announced Hitchcock would not be back when they announced their new GM. So 3 teams for sure on the market, and I think Ducks could have interest. They reportedly want someone who works well with youth, and Berube did well in Chicago with the youngsters and has gotten a lot out of younger players like Thomas, Dunn and Barbie. Although their AHL coach Eakin is a front-runner for the job.

Another team could still fire their coach and create an opening. I'd say Boudreau is the only one that jumps out at me as on the hot seat.

Lots of coaches have been hired recently, and such are safe. Sabres, Panthers, Kings, and Flyers all hired coaches once the season was over. Blackhawks made their hire in November. I doubt they will change their mind so soon. 2nd round playoff teams like the Canes, Avalanche, Stars, Sharks, Islanders, Canadians, and Blue Jackets are probably safe. I'd have said Torts in on the hot seat but sweeping Tampa probably clears him. First round losers like Calgary, Tampa, Nashville, Winnipeg, Washington, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vegas are probably content based on history and regular season for now although Maurice could be warm.

That's 24 teams (15 playoff, 3 openings, 5 recent hires and 1 hot seat). Plus us. That Arizona, Detroit, NJD, Montreal, NYR, and Vancouver. Tocchet (Ari) and Julien (Mon) have had less than 2 seasons and overachieved this year by pushing for a playoff spot with a suspect roster. I'd say they are safe. Blashill just signed a 2-year extention in April so he is safe as houses for now, although he would have been a hot seat guess otherwise. Quinn (NYR) only had this year which was a rebuilding year, so he probably has some rope. Quinn is working well with the younger players in Vancouver and showed improvement in his 2 years, so he too probably has rope. Hynes (NJD) may be on the hot seat as well. He has had 4 years and never been better than 5th in the division, missing playoffs 3 of the 4 years. But I have heard no rumors.

TLDR: 3 coach openings (Ana, Edm, Ott), 1-2 (Minn, NJ) hot seat candidates but lots of teams have hired/extended new coaches over the past 1-2 years and will probably stick with them.

Only team that worries me if the Blues don’t immediately sign him once the season is over is the Oilers. I can see Holland trying to start a bidding war and they have deep pockets. Anaheim is likely just waiting for the Gulls to finish their Calder Cup fun before promoting Eakins. Sens are probably just trying to find someone cheap and won’t fight Melnyk. FYI David Quinn is HC for Rangers. You must be thinking of Travis Green with Vancouver. Who I think has done a real good job with that young roster as well.

 

[Majorityof1]

Only team that worries me if the Blues don’t immediately sign him once the season is over is the Oilers. I can see Holland trying to start a bidding war and they have deep pockets. Anaheim is likely just waiting for the Gulls to finish their Calder Cup fun before promoting Eakins. Sens are probably just trying to find someone cheap and won’t fight Melnyk. FYI David Quinn is HC for Rangers. You must be thinking of Travis Green with Vancouver. Who I think has done a real good job with that young roster as well.

Yep, I typed Quinn twice. I meant Green the 2nd time when talking about Vancouver. I'll fix above.

I don't know if Berube is a good fit in Edmonton. He has never had to deal with such a top heavy roster. I definitely don't think he is such a highly prized coach that anyone would throw a blank check at him. I think there are better options for Edm than getting in a bidding war for Berube. But you never know what Edmonton will do. As for Amaheim, Eakin is the front runner, but I have head he is not a done deal and Berube I think would be a better fit for them. Sens are actually interviewing Roy, who I doubt will be too cheap, so they may make a splash with a name after all. They have interviewed a ton of lesser known names already though, so they may go cheap.

 

[Brian39]

Yep, I typed Quinn twice. I meant Green the 2nd time when talking about Vancouver. I'll fix above.

I don't know if Berube is a good fit in Edmonton. He has never had to deal with such a top heavy roster. I definitely don't think he is such a highly prized coach that anyone would throw a blank check at him. I think there are better options for Edm than getting in a bidding war for Berube. But you never know what Edmonton will do. As for Amaheim, Eakin is the front runner, but I have head he is not a done deal and Berube I think would be a better fit for them. Sens are actually interviewing Roy, who I doubt will be too cheap, so they may make a splash with a name after all. They have interviewed a ton of lesser known names already though, so they may go cheap.

I think any team concerned about a bad culture would want to give a hard look at Berube. That description fits Edmonton and Ottawa pretty well IMO.

 

[BlueSeal]

We win tonight, Chief can stay as our head coach forever. Sutter can stay retired.

And I want Maroon extended. The Big Rig took a major paycut to come home and found himself again during the end of the season and playoffs, it's obvious where his loyalty is.

Funny if we win it all that he will be the greatest Blue to wear #7 the moment he lifts that Cup. Pat has proven himself worthy to wear that number.

 

[Majorityof1]

I think any team concerned about a bad culture would want to give a hard look at Berube. That description fits Edmonton and Ottawa pretty well IMO.

I'm not familiar enough with either team to know how their locker room is. Ottawa had issues for sure, but they shipped out almost all their veterans. Much of their trouble stems from the top down anyway, and no coach can fix ownership meddling. I do think Berube would be a good choice for them, because of how he works with young players. I don't think Berube would be too keen to go there though if we give him a decent good faith offer, not do I see Ottawa outbidding us. But who knows. Any team with an opening would most likely kick the tires of a guy coming off a Jack Adams nomination/potential Cup Finals season if he was talking to other teams.

 

[Louie the Blue]

Berube's the only guy who I want coaching this team.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Still too early to pick Berube as head coach?

 

[Zamadoo]

Hail to the CHIEF!