Even though the Washington Capitals aren’t playing in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, there’s a notable alumnus behind the St. Louis bench. Blues head coach Craig Berube once spent part of his career in Washington.
Nicknamed by Caps fans as “The Chief“, Craig Berube spent five and a half seasons as a member of the Washington Capitals playing left wing. His time with Washington began in the 1993-94 season when the team called home in Landover, Maryland at the old Capital Centre.
Breube’s first season saw him record 14 points, seven goals and assists each in a historical season in itself. That spring, Berube was part of the first Capitals team in franchise history to defeat their biggest rival’s from Pittsburgh in six games.
The Chief’s greatest season was fittingly enough when the Capitals advanced to their first ever Stanley Cup Final in the 1997-98 season. That season also featured an change in scenery as the team said goodbye to Capital Centre and hello to their new and current downtown D.C. home then-called MCI Center (now Capital One Arena).
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Berube recorded 64 points (26 goals, 38 assists) in 419 games as a member of the Capitals. He had one career playoff goal which came during the 1998 Cup Final run. It occurred in the Eastern Conference Finals in Game 4 in Buffalo.
It came in the third period after a scoreless 40 minutes at 2:34 to put Washington on the board. At 13:38, Joe Juneau scored a shorthanded goal to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead for good measure.
Jeneau, as Capitals fans all know, would score an even bigger goal in overtime in that same building two games later. That goal would send them into the Final.
The Capitals were Berube’s second of five teams he played for. He began his career as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers and concluded it with the New York Islanders in 2003. In between that, Berube made stops in Calgary and Toronto. Once he hung up his skates, he began a new life as a coach.
Fittingly Berube began his coaching career at the same place he began his playing career, in Philadelphia. He spent two seasons as a Flyers head coach from 2013-15.
Berube then joined the Blues organization in 2016. First he was the head coach of the Chicago Wolves, their AHL affiliates at the time.
The next summer, Berube was named assistant coach and when the team got off to a slow start in 2018-19, Berube was named interim head coach after the firing of Mike Yeo.
I have no idea what Berbue was doing during the Stanley Cup Final the previous year when the Capitals were playing for the Cup but one could speculate he might’ve been motivated himself from watching that run.
When the Blues got off to a slow start, Berube was presented an opportunity to turn the franchise around. J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington wrote about how the team began their turnaround on Jan. 3 in a win over the Capitals.
If that wasn’t enough, they dominated Washington on their home ice just over a week later. It was a happy homecoming for Berube.
Now in a very similar way to the Capitals one year ago, the Blues won Game 2 which also marked their first-ever Stanley Cup Final game victory. Now the series goes back to St. Louis and expect the atmosphere Saturday night to be just as raucous as it was in Washington.
Berube is just three more wins away from having his name, and his team, engraved next to a former team name he got to experience playing for on this very stage.