Blues on verge of joining exclusive list of teams to fire coach, win Stanley Cup
St. Louis Blues coach Craig Berube is one win away from joining an exclusive club.
If the Blues can close out the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday night (or in Game 7 on Wednesday), Berube will become the seventh NHL coach hired midseason to win the Stanley Cup. Two of the previous six did so with the Penguins.
2019 St. Louis Blues
After getting off to a 7-9-3 start, the Blues fired former Penguins assistant Mike Yeo and replaced him with Berube. They also handed the goaltending reins to rookie Jordan Binnington in January, which was an equally important part of the turnaround.
2012 Los Angeles Kings
When the Kings fired Terry Murray on Dec. 20 and eventually replaced him with Darryl Sutter, it looked like a good but not great move for the rest of the regular season. Then the playoffs started. The eighth-seeded Kings rolled to a championship, going 16-4 in the postseason.
2016 Penguins
After playing plodding hockey under Mike Johnston for the first two months of the season, the Penguins promoted Mike Sullivan from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Dec. 12. Trading for Carl Hagelin and Trevor Daley made the transition to a speed game complete.
2009 Penguins
When a team that reached the Stanley Cup Final the year before was five points out of a playoff spot on Feb. 23, Michel Therrien had to go. Dan Bylsma was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and proceeded to go 18-3-4 the rest of the regular season.
2000 New Jersey Devils
In one of the more curious coaching changes in NHL history, Devils GM Lou Lamoriello didn’t like the way his playoff-bound club was playing late in the season, so he fired Robbie Ftorek with eight games to go. It turned out to be a good move. Larry Robinson led the Devils to a championship.
1971 Montreal Canadiens
After the vaunted Habs missed the playoffs in 1970 and got off to a mediocre 11-8-4 start to the next season, Claude Ruel resigned. Al MacNeil stepped in and won the first of six championships for the franchise in the decade.
1932 Toronto Maple Leafs
All it took for Art Duncan to get canned was an 0-3-2 start. Dick Irvin stepped in and led the Leafs to the title. Irvin would win the Cup twice more as coach of the Canadiens in the 1940s.
Jonathan Bombulie is the TribLive assistant sports editor. A Greensburg native, he was a hockey reporter for two decades, covering the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for 17 seasons before joining the Trib in 2015 and covering the Penguins for four seasons, including Stanley Cup championships in 2016-17. He can be reached at jbombulie@triblive.com.
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