The Blues parted ways with the coach who guided St. Louis to its first Stanley Cup victory when they fired Craig Berube.

Hours after the Blues’ 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, general manager Doug Armstrong of the team confirmed Berube’s termination.

The Blues, who have a 13-14-1 record so far this season, suffered their fourth straight defeat.

Nine points behind division leader Colorado in sixth place in the Central Division is St. Louis. Out of 16 clubs in the Western Conference, the Blues are ranked tenth.

In 2019, the 57-year-old Berube led the Blues to the Stanley Cup final. On November 20, 2018, he took over as temporary coach in lieu of Mike Yeo and oversaw an incredible comeback. In 2018–19, he guided St. Louis to a 38–19–6 record.

Berube has a 206-131-44 record in his sixth season with the Blues. Third in team history is his victory total. With 51 postseason games played, he recorded 24 playoff victories.

Tuesday night, St. Louis was up 4-3 against Detroit heading into the third quarter, but they lost for the fifth time in six games after giving up two goals and an empty-net goal in the closing minutes.

“You must earn everything, am I correct? Following the game, Berbue stated, “It’s not just going to happen.” “You must merit it. To earn it, you must play the proper way. You must pay attention to the details. We accomplished a great deal tonight. Even though we had enough goals to win the match, we ultimately performed poorly in front of the net this evening.

Drew Bannister, the American Hockey League’s Springfield Thunderbirds coach, was chosen interim coach by the Blues.

Bannister, 49, has spent the last three seasons coaching Springfield. He guided the group to a regular-season record of 93-58-19. The product of Belleville, Ontario, also led the Thunderbirds to back-to-back postseason trips, including a trip to the Calder Cup final and the Eastern Conference championship in 2021–2022.

On Thursday night, when the Blues play the Ottawa Senators, Bannister will be sitting on the bench.

Bannister represented the Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and New York Rangers in 164 NHL regular-season games.

With the Blues’ coaching change, Armstrong has now dismissed four coaches this season. Davis Payne in 2011, Ken Hitchcock in 2017, and Yeo in 2018 were all let go by him.

This season, the Blues became the third team to change coaches. In mid-November, the Edmonton Oilers dismissed Jay Woodcroft and brought in Kris Knoblauch in his stead. And after firing Dean Evason a little over two weeks ago, the Minnesota Wild chose John Hynes as coach.