Craig Berube’s Message Got Lost on Some Players But He Won’t Be Out of a Job for that Long
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Wednesday morning and when asked about his thoughts on Craig Berube’s firing Friedman talked about a potential disconnect between the coach and a foundational core player.
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
Gord Stellick: “Another one Friedge just you know, doing wake it up in the middle of the night and yeah, look at Twitter on the news and by Craig Berube. We were talking about DJ Smith and others that may be around the hot seat and I’m curious about your thoughts about it.
Did you have an inkling at all we’re wondering if the dead cat bounce from Minnesota and Edmonton their rivals having positive effects might have impacted on it or not. But what’s your take on the guy that brought the Stanley Cup to St. Louis being out?”
Elliotte Friedman: “This has been on and off for about a year. I’ve heard these rumors for a while. There were times last year when people thought it was gonna happen. And it didn’t. And it happened now obviously. You know, I think this is I think Craig Berube is an excellent motivator, I think he talks about winning battles and competing.
He’s not the most detail-oriented guy, but I don’t necessarily think that someone on your staff has to be your team has to be good at details. And your team has to be because you can’t win if you’re not good at details. You have to be good at two things. I think you have to be good at details and you have to be willing to compete.
And the one thing about Berube is that he had he was always really good at bringing that compete out of you and I think what happened was, as they turn the team over from the Stanley Cup Champion to the next generation of Blues, I just think that the connection between Berube and the players it just wasn’t the same.
And I think that one of the things you’re gonna hear a lot about is the relationship between Berube and Kyrou in particular, like he’s got an eight-year deal. He’s a member of the St. Louis Blues, he’s one of their key core players. And I just I don’t know if disconnect is the right word, but I just don’t think they connected as much as they ever needed to. And I think Berube got frustrated by Kyrou, and then in turn Kyrou got frustrated by Berube.
And I would bet that that is one of the reasons that in addition to the results, that is one of the reasons that they, they got here now. I don’t think Berube is done. I think he will find other opportunities. But I think what you need for him is like a team that is good and needs that push to get over.
Like when he got in there into St. Louis. I remember when they won the cup that year. A number of players talked about how he would not accept anything less than their best. And some of them and like Binnington got hot and they played really well. And when you look back at it, it’s one of the wildest Stanley Cup runs in recent memory, particularly with where that team was during the year.
But there were guys who said that he willed them into doing things that they didn’t normally do and I think that’s where his real strength is. And I’m wondering if teams looking at that are going to are going to look at him and say can he will us to a point that we couldn’t get to that was his real ability and the players talked very positively about it.”
