Google News St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong: Berube stays!
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St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong confirmed that Craig Berube will be a coach despite everything. "I believe in the coach, I believe in the system," Armstrong said, as quoted by nhl.com "This isn't a system issue, it's a competitive issue.
We have to rectify that. I told the players the coach is not going anywhere because the coach came from the American Hockey League where he coached young players and made them better and he coached veteran players and made them win here.
So he can do both." Armstrong is aware that the team is not doing very well, but he believes that the players will show what is expected of them. "We're in the bottom quartile of anything that matters in the NHL right now and that's the best we are, is in the bottom quartile," Armstrong said.
"We're in the bottom 10 percent in quite a few areas too. You look at goals-for, goals-against average, we're in the bottom. You look at goal differential, we're in the bottom. Our special teams are not special and so we need to make sure this is ground zero and start making our way up.
And what I said to the players, we may or may not win on Thursday. Obviously we're in the winning business, but what we need to see is a competitive level higher than what we have now."
Doug Armstrong
Armstrong believes that they must find a solution and be reborn.
The competition this season is too strong, and it will take a lot of effort and work if they want to compete with others. "I do say I do believe in the group," Armstrong said. "That's a very self-serving thing to say because I put the group together, and ultimately it's my responsibility to judge what they do.
"What we have to do now is put our stake in the ground that we want to get back and be in that competitive nature. When I look at the League in general right now, the teams that are rebuilding are moving quicker than the top teams are moving down, so the League is going to be compressed.
So, what we have to do is we have to work our way back into the compression part of it. "We're not in the compression part of it yet, meaning there's 25 teams right now in the NHL I think this morning that are .500 or better.
That's another 25 percent stat that we're not one of them. So, we have to find a way to get back into that."