By Jeremy Rutherford (The Athletic)
TEMPE, Ariz. — A whiff of breakfast food — eggs and sausage — emanates from a private room near the lobby of the Omni Hotel, where the St. Louis Blues are staying ahead of a road game against the Arizona Coyotes just before Thanksgiving.
Coach Craig Berube has been awake since 6:30 a.m. He sets an alarm on his cell phone, but the fierce competitor and former NHL enforcer always beats the clock to the punch.
Wearing a black polo-style shirt, navy blue slacks and a light jacket for the 70-degree Arizona air, Berube walks into the breakfast room, where coaches and trainers are nibbling away. But he doesn’t partake in the meal.
“I don’t eat a lot of times in the morning,” Berube tells The Athletic. “If I can fast for 15, 16 hours in a row and just drink some black coffee and water, then I’ll do it. It makes me feel good. I’ve got a lot more energy.”
Berube is hoping that last night’s dinner at Toca Madera, a Mexican steakhouse in nearby Scottsdale, will hold him over until the afternoon. He has two uncles in town, and they’re planning to meet for lunch, and he’s looking forward to that.
But there is so much to do before then: pre-practice meetings, video preparation, conversations with players, a morning skate and addressing the media. And that’s just the first half of the day. Later, there are more meetings, more video sessions, and, of course, a game to play.
It’s part of what will be a 19-hour day for Berube, 57, and it comes at the end of a four-game, eight-day road trip that has already had stops in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim. The night’s game is the third of the season against the Coyotes, and a win would allow the Blues to save face with a 2-2 road trip that began with a lump-inducing 5-1 loss to the Sharks.
Either way, though, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
The Blues are traveling back to St. Louis after the game, and when their chartered plane lands around 3 a.m., Berube will be reunited with his wife, Dominique, and his twin 15-year-olds, son Nashota and daughter Charlotte, for the holiday. They live in Philadelphia, where the children are in high school, and Berube hasn’t seen them since he left for training camp in September.
“It’s going to be good to just hang out for a couple days,” he says. “But today is today. I’m pretty good about separating those things. We’re right there, a couple points behind Winnipeg in the standings for the third spot. It’s a grind, so we just want to keep putting points on the board. That’s my focus: this game tonight.”
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