Former Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Fired by St. Louis Blues

The Philadelphia Flyers just can’t stay their way out of coaching changes, can they?

Just barely a month after former Flyers assistant Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft for the Edmonton Oilers, it was announced late Tuesday night that the St. Louis Blues would be firing former Flyers head coach Craig Berube. Berube, 57, was fired four days before his 58th birthday – Dec. 17.

The Philadelphia Flyers gave a 47 year old Berube his first NHL coaching job back in the 2013-14 season, coaching 79 games in the stead of Peter Laviolette, who was fired after an 0-3-0 start. Laviolette has since coached the Nashville Predators to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance, and has also commanded the Washington Capitals and now the New York Rangers.

After guiding the Flyers to a 42-27-10 record under his guise, Berube took Philadelphia to the playoffs, where they were eliminated in seven games by the Rangers. The Flyers had a disappointing 33-31-18 record under Berube in the 2014-15 season, leading to his dismissal at the end of the year. In total, the Calahoo, Alberta native was 75-58-28 as the Flyers’ bench boss.

At the age of 52, Berube became the St. Louis Blues’ head coach, and led them to a Stanley Cup win in 2019. By doing so, the former Flyers winger became just the third interim head coach in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup, joining Dan Bylsma and former adviser, Larry Robinson. The Blues have struggled recently, going 37-38-7 last season. After a 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night – making four losses in a row – St. Louis decided they had seen enough of Berube.

Before the game against the Red Wings, the Blues had scored just 76 goals in 27 games, placing them 25th in the league in scoring. Defensively, they weren’t much better, allowing 88 goals – good for 19th in the NHL.

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