Craig Berube… My Sportsman of the Year So Far

I’ve waited several days to write on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Not because I’m in despair over my Bruins losing 4-1, but more to the point to reflect on what the St. Louis Blues just did in this age of collective bargaining agreements, super agents, and super stars.

What the St. Louis Blues just did is one for the ages in my lifetime in one of the four major sports. The Blues were in dead last place of all NHL teams on January 3rd. They fired their head coach and made Craig Berube their interim head coach. The first thing he did was put a rookie goalie named Jordan Binnington as his starter in net. We saw how that worked out.

His general manager also made a shrewd trade in which he brought Ryan O’Reilly to the team. As we saw Ryan O’Reilly was the best player on the ice in this series and edged out Binnington for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

But most importantly what Craig Berube brought to the last place Blues was coaching honesty and accountability from every player on the roster top to bottom. You skate hard, you play smart, you play every inch of the ice in both zones, and you win the one on one battles.

As I’ve written on here the Boston Bruins are easily my favorite hockey team. This will not change. But as I’ve reflected on Wednesday night’s final result it was good these Blues won this championship in these times in which we live. It was refreshing to see a head coach in this age look his players in the eyes and speak honestly to his players.

Here’s the pregame presser before Game 7….do you think there was any doubt in that St. Louis locker room? By the way…these Blues were 10-3 on the road in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.

They say some teams take on the persona of their coach. These St. Louis Blues are a direct reflection of Craig Berube. They’re old school in an age of millennial softness. This was a Cup won not by an Ovechkin or a Sid or Boston’s star line, but won by a group who pulled themselves out of dead last place and became the best team in the world at their sport.

This was Craig Berube’s hockey team…make no mistake of that. I have no idea what the future holds for Berube. I would assume he’ll be the Blues head coach for awhile if that’s what he wants to do.

But I do know this…Craig Berube along with Tiger Woods is my leading candidate for Sportsman of the Year so far in 2019.

Here’s a brief clip of Berube as the tough no nonsense defenseman he was as a player. See what I mean. Do we understand how these Blues became Craig Berube circa 2019?

I often refer to the Three Rules of Coaching on my blog:

1 Players makes the coach

2 Coach thru your own unique personality

3 You’re always hired to be fired at some point.

But Craig Berube just defied the Three Rules of Coaching in these Stanley Cup Finals. In this instance, Craig Berube in his own way made the players.

What a great Stanley Cup Finals we just witnessed.

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