Simple has proven better in the case of the Blues. But you rate the factors in their rebirth this season at the risk of oversimplification.

For instance, there is no easy explanation for Jordan Binnington–of the 22-5-1 record, 1.85 goals against average and .928 save percentage since his callup–taking seven years through San Antonio, Kalamazoo, Providence and the Chicago Wolves to reach the NHL. Likewise, we can’t sum up in one or two sentences how a franchise qualifying for the playoffs most often than any team added to the NHL in 1967 or later has not even been back to a final since 1970. That is more than plain disappointing, simply bizarre.

The odds against not getting one hot stick, one hot goalie, and one good run over 48 years seem incalculable, adding to the frustration in the stands of whatever they are calling that arena in St. Louis this week. But that’s a big picture outside the focus of a coach who has turned 15-18-4 into 28-13-4 since, earning the franchise’s 42nd postseason appearance and yet still not knowing whether he has a job for next season.

The future of Craig Berube is complicated–as presumably it is in Philadelphia for Scott Gordon–by the availability of an out-of work three-time Cup winner, Joel Quenneville, who is fondly remembered in St. Louis for producing one of only three Blues berths in a semifinal in the 48 years.

Berube, promoted from an assistantship under the fired Mike Yeo to get the Blues through the year, has gotten them to within two points of first place in the Central by plain talking some frustrated, embarrassed and underachieving players into sticking together.

“I would say Craig is not complicated,” said GM Doug Armstrong. “Our system is not complicated.

“I don’t want to say we play (just) on emotion. But he is very simplistic and I think the players appreciate he shows a lot of trust in them.

“He doesn’t change lines very often or make a lot of in-game adjustments, lets the players work through things. I think that a really good recipe for an experienced team.”

Last year ended badly for the Blues in a rare failure to qualify for the post-season. This one started worse with third-period fold after fold plus suspicions that a talented team had turned rotten at its core. Heralded additions like Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron were over trying to immediately prove their worth and holdovers moved down in the lineup to accommodate the upgrades chafed at more limited new roles.

“Everything had to be changed and the locker room was part of it,” says Berube. “Everybody had to realize that the team comes first.

“When teams struggle, it’s some systems stuff. But more of it for me is not playing like a team on the ice. One thing we talked about was getting everybody on the same page and more predictable to each other. We were not sure what this guy or that guy was going to do.

“Confidence is the biggest thing and it’s not all individual. If you are not confident in your teammates, it’s hard to win. That includes knowing how you have to win.

“We lost to Calgary (7-2) at home and had a meeting. It was tough, but needed. We went out West, had a really good trip and that’s when things turned.”

Binnington took over on January 7 with a 3-0 shutout in Philadelphia, ending a bad experiment with journeyman Chad Johnson as the No, 1 guy, While Ville Husso, clearly the goaltending prospect of choice while the Blues farmed out Bennington a year ago to Boston’s farm in Providence, struggles with an .871 save percentage in San Antonio since returning from injury, Binnington has run with an opportunity at times it didn’t look he ever was going to receive.

Berube, who coached Binnington a Chicago, says he has developed mental toughness. So has the team playing in front of him, funny how that works almost every single time.

“Guy are playing much freer now that we are keeping the puck out of the net,” says Armstrong.

And they have been freer to speak too.

“When you are a new guy you are always feeling your way,” says Berube. “But with O’Reilly’s work ethic and play he has opened up more, which is really good. Guys look up to him.

“(Vladimir) Tarasenko is a goal scorer but his work ethic has really improved on both sides of the puck. He is checking and being a real good teammate. He really has come around for me; is pretty easy to work with.”

This isn’t 1955. If it’s my way or the highway, the coach is the one going to hit the road. He has to form a partnership with his best player or players.

Chief Berube lasted 17 years in the NHL with minimal puck skills by being not just one of the toughest guys in the league but one of the smartest in every room where he dressed. The simple common sense he dispensed was so valued that three different teams brought him back a second time. It’s hard to carry that kind of cache from the fourth line, but Berube did it and now he has it as the boss.

This isn’t his first time he hopped into a saddle to calm a bucking bronco. Similarly elevated to replace Peter Laviolette after just three games in 2013-14, the Flyers sunk to 3-9 before recovering to make the playoffs and take a superior Ranger team to a seventh game. Berube did it by simplifying the system and telling it to the players straight, good and bad. Inspired, they overachieved, rallying repeatedly in third periods in a truly inspired run.

The team wasn’t really that good, and after reality set in the following year. New GM Ron Hextall wanted his own guy, Dave Hakstol, whom he had watched coach his son in college. Berube was gone at the end of his one full season, before he barely got started.

He never should have been fired, just like Al Arbour from behind his first bench in St. Louis, and John Muckler from his first opportunity in Minnesota and Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach who ever lived, in Cleveland. Better players in the following stops were not all that made these coaches smarter ever after, but growth.

“I think I probably have opened up more to talking (individually) to players,” said Berube. “Every day now I go around to make sure things are good.

“What’s going on with them? What’s been good? What they can do better? What can I do to help them? I find that I have changed that way quite a bit.

“I’m honest. If it has to be tough, I do it. But I want the guys to tell me too, what they are thinking.”

A lot of what the Blues are thinking now is that they want this guy to continue to be their coach.

“He’s a guy you can always go talk to,” says Tyler Bozak. “He knows what we go through on a daily basis.”

And tells them what they have to continue to do together on a daily basis, too. The Blues have the highest scoring defense in the league and size back there, too. They are deeper than most teams in scoring, having eight players between eight and 20 goals, a reflection of the team that keeps coming after you, shift after shift.

Having to chase to get in–the Blues are only the seventh team in the expansion era to go from last place overall on January 1 to a playoff spot–usually is not a predictor of a long playoff run. But with first-to-third place in the Central all still possibilities, the Blues, 3-1 against Nashville this season, have no reason to try to avoid that matchup and Berube concedes the more important thing in the final week may be getting some players some rest. “We’re a little exhausted,” he says.

At the same time, the goal always is to go into the post season playing well. Even for an uncomplicated coach, balancing a recharge against a continued charge (7-2 after Tuesday’s night’s shootout win over Colorado) isn’t so simple. After what Berube has done to save the Blues’ season, Armstrong’s decision seems a lot easier.

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