Confirmed with Link: Berube out, Bannister in

[STL fan in MN]

 

[BlueDream]

I feel like the criticism with Berube's firing is that both the compete from the players was lost and the system Berube put in place just doesn't work. Aside from their 0-10-1 start to the season, the Sharks have gone 8-7-2 with a hilariously mediocre team when compared to the Blues. I don't think the Blues should be a playoff team, but I expect better compete out of these guys and if Armstrong thinks the message has gotten stale/the system has shown not to work, then you fire him

Yeah that’s fair. I am sick and tired of seeing the Blues look lackadaisical to start every single game, and then after the game give the same non-answers to the media as to why. Berube definitely was running out of ideas, so it will be interesting to see how we look with a new coach.

By the way I laughed out loud at how quickly you got that new avatar up there. Well done.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Alright, what can we expect from Drew Bannister? I don't know much about him outside of prospect watching a handful of Springfield games.

Coached Sault Ste. Marie for 3 years; 2 division titles, named OHL and CHL Coach of the Year in 2018. Lost in the OHL Finals in 2018. 2 years with San Antonio (AHL), never made the playoffs. 2 years + current with Springfield (AHL); lost in the Calder Cup Finals in 2022, out in the preliminary round 2-0 (best-of-3) last season.

Seemed to develop a positive reputation for player development, but that might be relative because we've historically sucked at it. 1st time coaching anywhere at the NHL level. Rumored to have been considered for an assistant position this offseason, ultimately remained at Springfield.

 

[Robb_K]

This happened earlier than expected, but I knew it was coming. I think getting a Top 7 or 8 draft position might help more than sneaking into the last playoff position, and getting knocked out in the first series (even with The Team missing out on the playoff revenue from the 2 home games.

 

[Xerloris]

Mixed feelings about this. Obviously the current team has tons of problems and the head coach will always bear responsibility for those. It’s clear things have gotten stale so I don’t hate trying a new voice.

But if anything, this firing might bring up more questions than it answers. If you trade Perron, ROR, Barbashev and Tarasenko last year and replace them with Blais, Kapanen, Hayes and Vrana and then call it an offseason… well if I’m Berube, I would be pissed that I was expected to win with that. There needs to be serious concern about whether we are putting both players and coaches into positions to succeed here.

I don't think he was expected to win but our current roster is plenty good enough to not look like a f***ing clown show on the ice.

 

[Majorityof1]

Who was it that said Bannister didn't have the faith of Armstrong because we didn't give him one of the assistant roles? Hmmm.

Who said their was a disconnect between coach and GM? Oh yeah, that was me earlier today,

Its unfortunate that Berube was let go. I think he is a good coach when given a good roster and paired with a good Xs and Os guys. Unfortunately, we didn't have either of those. His message was definitely getting stale, and there seems to be a major disconnect with how he is coaching vs the personell Army is getting. I thought it was a potential issue. I wasn't expecting it to be one that was handled like this, and this quickly.

I do like Bannister. I think he is a great developmental coach and a good coach. We may need the developmental side more in the coming years. But we could really use him in Sprindfield now, with Dean, Bolduc there now and Dvorak and potentiall Snuggy on the way, I think Springdale is a more useful place for him.

How many coaches is Armstrong going to fire before the finger starts pointing a bit in his direction? We were awful last year. He did nothing this off season to improve the team. We needed a good xs and Os coach to run the PP and fix the defense. He got guys who got the head coach fired. Hopefully, Ott isn't too far behind.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Should have made Monty the coach instead of letting him go to Boston!

Stop it. We were never firing the guy who'd coached the team to the Cup 3 years prior, coming off a 109-point season and a near-certain, practically definite Cup run if not for that motherf***ing cheap goddamn bastard Kadri 2nd-round appearance, for a guy who'd been fired from his previous head coaching job for being an alcoholic to the point it impaired his ability to do his job, because of one season where he was an assistant here.

 

[Robb_K]

Coached Sault Ste. Marie for 3 years; 2 division titles, named OHL and CHL Coach of the Year in 2018. Lost in the OHL Finals in 2018. 2 years with San Antonio (AHL), never made the playoffs. 2 years + current with Springfield (AHL); lost in the Calder Cup Finals in 2022, out in the preliminary round 2-0 (best-of-3) last season.

Seemed to develop a positive reputation for player development, but that might be relative because we've historically sucked at it. 1st time coaching anywhere at the NHL level. Rumored to have been considered for an assistant position this offseason, ultimately remained at Springfield.

It would be really good if he really is good at player development. We also need better, or more scouts, and the related better drafting. But player development has been a big problem.

 

[Xerloris]

Who was it that said Bannister didn't have the faith of Armstrong because we didn't give him one of the assistant roles? Hmmm.

Who said their was a disconnect between coach and GM? Oh yeah, that was me earlier today,

Its unfortunate that Berube was let go. I think he is a good coach when given a good roster and paired with a good Xs and Os guys. Unfortunately, we didn't have either of those. His message was definitely getting stale, and there seems to be a major disconnect with how he is coaching vs the personell Army is getting. I thought it was a potential issue. I wasn't expecting it to be one that was handled like this, and this quickly.

I do like Bannister. I think he is a great developmental coach and a good coach. We may need the developmental side more in the coming years. But we could really use him in Sprindfield now, with Dean, Bolduc there now and Dvorak and potentiall Snuggy on the way, I think Springdale is a more useful place for him.

How many coaches is Armstrong going to fire before the finger starts pointing a bit in his direction? We were awful last year. He did nothing this off season to improve the team. We needed a good xs and Os coach to run the PP and fix the defense. He got guys who got the head coach fired. Hopefully, Ott isn't too far behind.

I mean this is the first head coach firing since we won the cup. Are you going to hold Payne, Hitchcock and Yeo against him when keeping Doug resulted in a cup?

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

I do like Bannister. I think he is a great developmental coach and a good coach. We may need the developmental side more in the coming years. But we could really use him in Sprindfield now, with Dean, Bolduc there now and Dvorak and potentiall Snuggy on the way, I think Springdale is a more useful place for him.

How many coaches is Armstrong going to fire before the finger starts pointing a bit in his direction? We were awful last year. He did nothing this off season to improve the team. We needed a good xs and Os coach to run the PP and fix the defense. He got guys who got the head coach fired. Hopefully, Ott isn't too far behind.

I'm curious who Springfield replaces Bannister with, considering that's going to be a highly important position for the future of the organization.

I'd wager whoever is named the next non-interim coach is probably his last coach. Army has 2 additional years after this season, and if the ship isn't headed in the right direction by then, I certainly think he's on the chopping block. And that's well within the normal lifespan of a new coach.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I think the thing that bothers me about this is that last season, Armstrong recognized there was a problem 8 games into the season to the point he felt it was necessary to go address the team and make it clear, "this is on you guys, I'm not firing the head coach."

ROR the Captain gets shipped out, Vlad the Indifferent gets shipped out, Barbie the Opportuner gets shipped out, ... but there's still a lot of core guys here, including a few guys who are supposed to be future leaders for this team and a guy who's supposedly a key leader of the team who gets the 'C' affixed to his jersey, and after a semi-decent start they go right back to doing the same shit again - but now the head coach has to pay the price.

And one of the very first questions in about 10 hours or so better be, "when are you really going to hold the players accountable for all of this?" because at some point, some of them need to be paying the price for their indifferent, lackadaisical play.

Are you going to hold Payne, Hitchcock and Yeo against him when keeping Doug resulted in a cup?

You're goddamn right I'll hold Yeo against him, Cup or no Cup, because Yeo should have never started the season with the Blues after his f***ing abysmal coaching "effort" down the stretch in 2018 - and that was evident to much of this forum at season's end, even if everyone later relented with well, maybe with better players he'll be less of a f***ing dumbass.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I think the thing that bothers me about this is that last season, Armstrong recognized there was a problem 8 games into the season to the point he felt it was necessary to go address the team and make it clear, "this is on you guys, I'm not firing the head coach."

ROR the Captain gets shipped out, Vlad the Indifferent gets shipped out, Barbie the Opportuner gets shipped out, ... but there's still a lot of core guys here, including a few guys who are supposed to be future leaders for this team and a guy who's supposedly a key leader of the team who gets the 'C' affixed to his jersey, and after a semi-decent start they go right back to doing the same shit again - but now the head coach has to pay the price.

And one of the very first questions in about 10 hours or so better be, "when are you really going to hold the players accountable for all of this?" because at some point, some of them need to be paying the price for their indifferent, lackadaisical play.

That's my issue with it. This is such an unlikeable group of players and there's no part of me that believes that a new voice is going to be able to get more out of this roster without heads rolling.

 

[Majorityof1]

I mean this is the first head coach firing since we won the cup. Are you going to hold Payne, Hitchcock and Yeo against him when keeping Doug resulted in a cup?

He has the same track record since the cup as Berube. Berube has to coach the team he assembled. If I gave you a piece of swiss cheese for a parachute and push you out the plane, is it your fault you can't fly?

Our problems are not on coaching, they are on the roster. Before the last few games, we were better than most of us thought we should be. Most people in the pre-season polls had us missing the playoffs. So it seems like Berube didn't fail this season, he just had f*** all to work with,

 

[STL fan in MN]

Alright, what can we expect from Drew Bannister? I don't know much about him outside of prospect watching a handful of Springfield games.

100% of Blues Cup wins have come under an Interim Head Coach. So he’s got that going for him.

 

[ezcreepin]

Yeah that’s fair. I am sick and tired of seeing the Blues look lackadaisical to start every single game, and then after the game give the same non-answers to the media as to why. Berube definitely was running out of ideas, so it will be interesting to see how we look with a new coach.

By the way I laughed out loud at how quickly you got that new avatar up there. Well done.

Yea for sure, it gets annoying when the players don't have answers and it doesn't look like the effort is there. I don't know where that comes from, but obviously Armstrong felt like this was the final straw.

Also thank you, I take pride in my avatar changes so it's nice to be recognized for that lmao

Who was it that said Bannister didn't have the faith of Armstrong because we didn't give him one of the assistant roles? Hmmm.

Who said their was a disconnect between coach and GM? Oh yeah, that was me earlier today,

Its unfortunate that Berube was let go. I think he is a good coach when given a good roster and paired with a good Xs and Os guys. Unfortunately, we didn't have either of those. His message was definitely getting stale, and there seems to be a major disconnect with how he is coaching vs the personell Army is getting. I thought it was a potential issue. I wasn't expecting it to be one that was handled like this, and this quickly.

I do like Bannister. I think he is a great developmental coach and a good coach. We may need the developmental side more in the coming years. But we could really use him in Sprindfield now, with Dean, Bolduc there now and Dvorak and potentiall Snuggy on the way, I think Springdale is a more useful place for him.

How many coaches is Armstrong going to fire before the finger starts pointing a bit in his direction? We were awful last year. He did nothing this off season to improve the team. We needed a good xs and Os coach to run the PP and fix the defense. He got guys who got the head coach fired. Hopefully, Ott isn't too far behind.

To be fair to Armstrong, he was first hired in 2010 and his first coach was Payne. Was the team very good? Idk, you could argue they were better than they played, but there looks like some under performing players there and no Petro. Blues narrowly missed by 5 points that year, but clearly the expectations were higher. Then Hitch came in the following year and did what he did. He's a hall of fame coach and just knows how to form a great defensive team and it showed. I don't know if we'll ever know if Payne learned how to be a head coach in the future, but he obviously couldn't cut it. Would you give him a pass for his first hire? Genuine question.

Then obviously Hitch's message got stale and Yeo came in. I think that was a mistake and it was clear just by Yeo's demeanor in the second full season. I don't give Army a pass on that one even despite the team playing well after Hitch was fired. After Yeo is fired, you have Berube who wins you the cup, an obvious win for Army even though Berube's message got stale more quickly than Hitch's. If you give Armstrong a pass for Payne then he's had 1 bad hire, otherwise he's even. My assumption is that if there is one more bad official head coach on this team, then Armstrong is gone. I could be wrong because it seems like Stillman trusts him, but that just seems like the logical next step even if I may disagree with it in the future.

 

[TheDizee]

idiotic, he has to work with the talent he has. hes not the one who signed all these bad contracts to under performing and subpar players.

kyrou, krug and armstrong need to go.

 

[BlueDream]

I'm curious who Springfield replaces Bannister with, considering that's going to be a highly important position for the future of the organization.

I'd wager whoever is named the next non-interim coach is probably his last coach. Army has 2 additional years after this season, and if the ship isn't headed in the right direction by then, I certainly think he's on the chopping block. And that's well within the normal lifespan of a new coach.

Daniel Tkaczuk is Springfield’s interim now. Per Strickland.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Yea for sure, it gets annoying when the players don't have answers and it doesn't look like the effort is there. I don't know where that comes from, but obviously Armstrong felt like this was the final straw.

Also thank you, I take pride in my avatar changes so it's nice to be recognized for that lmao

To be fair to Armstrong, he was first hired in 2010 and his first coach was Payne. Was the team very good? Idk, you could argue they were better than they played, but there looks like some under performing players there and no Petro. Blues narrowly missed by 5 points that year, but clearly the expectations were higher. Then Hitch came in the following year and did what he did. He's a hall of fame coach and just knows how to form a great defensive team and it showed. I don't know if we'll ever know if Payne learned how to be a head coach in the future, but he obviously couldn't cut it. Would you give him a pass for his first hire? Genuine question.

Then obviously Hitch's message got stale and Yeo came in. I think that was a mistake and it was clear just by Yeo's demeanor in the second full season. I don't give Army a pass on that one even despite the team playing well after Hitch was fired. After Yeo is fired, you have Berube who wins you the cup, an obvious win for Army even though Berube's message got stale more quickly than Hitch's. If you give Armstrong a pass for Payne then he's had 1 bad hire, otherwise he's even. My assumption is that if there is one more bad official head coach on this team, then Armstrong is gone. I could be wrong because it seems like Stillman trusts him, but that just seems like the logical next step even if I may disagree with it in the future.

Payne wasn’t even really his hire as Pleau was still GM at the time Murray was fired and replaced by Payne

 

[Xerloris]

He has the same track record since the cup as Berube. Berube has to coach the team he assembled. If I gave you a piece of swiss cheese for a parachute and push you out the plane, is it your fault you can't fly?

Our problems are not on coaching, they are on the roster. Before the last few games, we were better than most of us thought we should be. Most people in the pre-season polls had us missing the playoffs. So it seems like Berube didn't fail this season, he just had f*** all to work with,

I agree that the roster would not be able to win a cup but the roster is perfectly good enough to not be a f***ing embarrassment on the ice. That's on Berube.

 

[Frenzy31]

I think all coaches seem to have expiration dates. Everyone from Bowman on.

This team starts the year playing strong defense and having little offense. And now is scoring at a decent clip while giving up 5 goals a game. D coverage is a mess. PP is at an all time low - - we have more short handed goals the PP and that is on coaching. I don’t think his lines made a lot of sence and he doesnt put players in the best situation to maximize their talents.

 

[mk80]

Firing a good coach to try and spark a flawed roster into a first round exit. Armstrong needs to embrace a longer/deeper retool at this point. No HOF coach was winning with the roster he put together this season.

 

[shpongle falls]

Well damn this is crazy. I hope Bannister can help right the ship, looking forward to see what he does. Hopefully his style meshes better with this roster.

Chief was the best probably my favorite coach Blues have ever had, he had a hell of a run with us.

 

[mk80]

We will find out tomorrow later today I'm sure, but I wonder who they choose to fill the Springfield vacancy. Getting that decision right is also key to success when developing our prospects. Daniel Tkazcuk has been Associate Head Coach under Bannister for a few years so he seems like first in line, but Jordan Smith had great success as head coach of the Soo Greyhounds

Hockey Operations | Springfield Thunderbirds

Springfield Thunderbirds hockey operations and coaching staff, featuring head coach, assistant coach, general manager, etc.

www.springfieldthunderbirds.com

 

[Reality Czech]

Stop it. We were never firing the guy who'd coached the team to the Cup 3 years prior, coming off a 109-point season and a near-certain, practically definite Cup run if not for that motherf***ing cheap goddamn bastard Kadri 2nd-round appearance, for a guy who'd been fired from his previous head coaching job for being an alcoholic to the point it impaired his ability to do his job, because of one season where he was an assistant here.

Come on man, give the hindsight crew a break. They're never wrong!

Add me to the list of people surprised by this move. I said just the other day that Berube was going nowhere till the end of the season, simply because I didn't see the point in making a change right this moment. The only reason is if the players mutinied against him, or I suppose if they just tuned him out completely. Maybe it was the latter.

I'm guessing there are two reasons they fired him now. First, they need to send a message to the players that their crappy play has consequences. The longer they suck, the more uncomfortable it gets for everyone. Secondly, this tells me that the front office still thinks this season is salvageable, which is puzzling. Not a fan of this move but at least Berube gets a well needed vacation before being hired by another team in the not so distant future. Plus he doesn't have to be a part of this shitshow anymore. Thanks for your service Chief, you'll always be a legend in St Louis.

 

[Novacain]

Raising my glass to the coach who led the team to one of the best moments of my adult life. He's been in an increasingly thankless position, with our roster construction going further and further into coo coo bananas of "Just throwing shit at a wall and hoping we get lucky", I don't really know what he could have been expected to get out of this. But he will always have gave us a Cup, and will generally be viewed as the best coach the team has had due to that.

As for what I think this leads to the rest of the year, honestly, eh. This feels like it should be Armstrong's last gambit. He's locked us down this path, there are no more barriers to him anymore. The Cup win is half a decade ago, and the roster he's given us now is.... Well. This.