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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.

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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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And from the early wakeup call Wednesday to the wee hours Thursday, he’ll keep that focus, even with an observer in tow. To give fans a better idea of what it’s like behind the scenes and off camera, Berube has agreed to let The Athletic shadow him from start to finish.

Here’s 19 hours in the life of an NHL coach on game day.

It’s 7:30 a.m., and Berube takes a seat on a cushy couch, holding his first cup of coffee of the day. There will be plenty more of those, with puck-drop at Arizona’s Mullett Arena still 12 hours away.

“You’ve got a feeling of you want to get going, but the game isn’t until night,” he says. “It becomes a little monotonous waiting around.”

A lot of times, Berube will see his players milling around in the hotel lobby. On this day, defensemen Justin Faulk and Nick Leddy are standing not far away. He doesn’t avoid anyone but prefers to save those chats for when they’re in the locker room.

The Blues’ chartered bus — a sleek, black Prevost — will make three trips to Mullet Arena before the morning skate at 11:30 a.m. The first trip, which typically includes just coaches and staff, departs at 8. The other two, which the players will ride, leave at 9:30 and 10.

Before he boards, Berube explains what the staff will be discussing when it arrives at the arena.

“We’re still mulling over the lineup a little bit, so there may be a change here or there,” he says. “We’ll also discuss how we want our meetings with the players to run this morning. Normally, we do a power-play meeting in the morning with another (pre-scout) meeting for the team we’re playing.

“But today, we might do some review stuff from our last game (a 3-1 win over Anaheim) and a pre-scout from the last time we played Arizona (a 2-1 win), and then do the special-teams meetings tonight. But we’ll see when we get there.”

With the Coach perhaps a bit antsy, the coach bus pulls out of the parking lot three minutes early at 7:57 a.m.

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Berube is seated in the first row on the right side. General manager Doug Armstrong would normally be on the left side, but he’s in Europe scouting. Al MacInnis, the Hall of Famer turned senior adviser to the GM, is representing management on the trip.

If any players take the early bus, they’ll walk up the steps and past Berube, and he may give them a nod.

“But they usually have their AirPods in, and they’re not paying attention to me,” he says, laughing.

The ride to the rink, which is on the campus of Arizona State University, is less than 10 minutes.

Once there, Berube and assistant coaches Steve Ott, Mike Weber, David Alexander and Michael Babcock head to an upstairs office. They have a 15-minute meeting, and as Berube expected, they decide they’re going to show the Anaheim and Arizona video clips that morning and save the specials-teams talk for pregame. Each coach has marked spots in the clips that they plan to use as talking points.

The staff also discusses who’s going to be in that night’s lineup, factoring in who had an impact last time they played the Coyotes and how players have been performing lately.

“There’s a lot to think about, so it’s just discussions you have with the coaches, making sure we’re all on the same page,” Berube says.

It’s decided that Sammy Blais, who was a healthy scratch against Anaheim, will return to the lineup and Jakub Vrana will be a healthy scratch. Defensively, Robert Bortuzzo and Tyler Tucker will sit out again.

The lineup is listed on the board in the locker room, which players will see when they come in. Berube will make it a point to talk with Blais and Vrana, but before that happens, he wants to tighten up the video clips.

“We’ve got to make sure it’s not too long because if it is, you’re going to lose the attention span of the team,” he says.

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As Berube heads downstairs, he tosses an empty cup into a nearby trash can. What number coffee was that?

“Three,” he says.

The third bus pulls up at 10:10 a.m., and players funnel in through a back door. Blais sees his name in the lineup.

“What’s up big boy? You ready for tonight?” Berube says to him.

They talk for two minutes.

“He told me that I’m important to the team, and if the team is going to have success, I’m going to have to be at my best,” Blais says.

The players get seated in the locker room, where their video session lasts about 10 minutes.

Berube also discusses the potential distraction of the Thanksgiving holiday, which is now less than 24 hours away.

“They probably have family traveling into (St. Louis), so those things do pop into their heads,” he says.

The morning skate will begin at 11:30 a.m. This season, Berube has made most of these practices optional, but not today.

“It’s not going to be long, but we want to get a good skate here and work on some execution,” he says.

At 11:47 a.m., after a few drills, Berube is one of the first skaters to step off the ice. He takes off his gear and puts his polo and slacks back on before heading outside to address the media.

First, he records an interview with longtime Blues’ radio play-by-play man Chris Kerber, a segment they do every game day.

“Craig Berube understands and respects all the jobs that people have to do,” Kerber says. “He treats the media with respect and answers questions honestly and fairly. He’s just amazingly respectful of all of that. And it’s not a show. It’s who he is.”

Berube then does another question-and-answer session with the rest of the media. This lasts 4 1/2 minutes, during which he’s asked about facing Arizona for the third time this season, Jake Neighbours’ promotion to the second line and Vrana being scratched.

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“We just need more from him,” he tells reporters. “There’s certain areas of his play where, to me, he’s waiting to score and not working.”

After wrapping up, Berube says of the sometimes-monotonous media duty and the touchy topics, “It’s all part of the game.”

“They report things and that’s important,” he says. “I don’t think you need to give up everything. There’s some things that need to stay in the room and not get out to the media. But at the same time, you’ve got to give the media something, too.”

Berube also makes time for his daily phone call with Armstrong, who is about eight hours ahead of mountain time in Arizona. Their conversation lasts about 15 minutes.

“I talked to him about how the team is doing, and we discussed some players, what’s going on with them,” Berube says. “Then it was a lot of things that are going to happen in the future. Army is very detailed. We’re always planning ahead.”

At this point, Berube hasn’t spoken to Vrana, who already knows that he’s not in the lineup. That conversation comes after the forward leaves the ice.

“Yeah, but that’s just between him and I,” Berube says.

It’s now 12:30 p.m. and time to meet his family, including his uncle, Emile Berube, from Calahoo, Alberta. They were in town and arranged a few days earlier to come to practice and go to lunch.

“My uncle Emile, he’s a big part, along with my dad (Roger), of why I played hockey,” Berube says. “They played themselves and then coached us. They enjoy coming to our practices, just being around and watching how things work.”

If you’re thinking Berube is also looking forward to lunch because he’s getting hungry, that’s not the case just yet.

“Ah, I’m not too bad,” he insists. “I’m telling you, I can do it. I can go a long time. In the summer, I’ll sometimes go the whole day and just eat dinner at night. I don’t mind it.”

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During Berube’s 17-year NHL career, his playing weight was 220 pounds, and while still in good shape, he’s currently at 235. On the road, he’ll often get in a workout during the day, but there’s no time for that today.

The group heads to Zipps Sports Grill, and now Berube is ready to admit that a bite of food doesn’t sound too bad.

“I’m ready to eat,” he says.

Berube hits the spot with a cheeseburger and a salad.

It’s now 2 o’clock and he heads back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the game. For the four-game road trip, he’s packed two suits. He brought four shirts and four ties and he rotates the suits, wearing the same one against San Jose and Anaheim in Games 1 and 3 of the trip and the other against L.A. and Arizona in Games 2 and 4.

Though they’ve spent a lot of time in Berube’s suitcase, they look sharp behind the bench.

“A lot of these suits, they’re made with material that doesn’t really wrinkle,” he says of the suits, which come from Bespoke Apparel. “Same with the shirts.”

The first bus leaves for the game at 4 p.m., and Berube is the first off.

He goes straight upstairs, where the staff prepares for special-teams meetings. Many players come over on the second bus, which leaves at 4:45 p.m. Soon they’ll all be assembled for another short video session.

There is some downtime before St. Louis and Arizona take the ice for warmups. Berube’s assistant coaches stand on the Blues’ bench and watch the Coyotes’ line rushes and defensive pairings. They bring that information back to Berube, who compares the lineup to what the club was expecting.

“It was exactly what we thought it would be,” he says. “We’re usually right on.”

Berube fills out his lineup card, including his starters, and gives players one final talk on how he wants them to approach the game.

After the first period, the score is tied 2-2, but things aren’t going as Berube hoped. His message at intermission? “‘Start doing things right, be aggressive, skate, work!'” forward Alexey Toropchenko relays.

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By the next intermission, it’s 5-5. Berube isn’t down in the dumps, though. The coach tells his team it’s playing well and to “stay positive,” Kevin Hayes says, “trying to get us going.”

They do, and it’s Hayes who scores on a breakaway 4:13 into the third, which holds up as the game-winner.

No one can say that game wasn't entertaining.#stlblues | @betwayusa pic.twitter.com/9tnazRDrE8

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 23, 2023

Berube walks into the locker room after the horn, and gives the team more good news: a day off.

He had consulted with captain Brayden Schenn a day earlier about how the team wanted to handle the holiday. Normally it wouldn’t practice with a holiday, but with a game against Nashville on Friday at 2 p.m., that would mean not reconvening until game time.

“Chief texted me and said, ‘Is it better to skate or just let guys rest?'” Schenn says. “It’s not my decision, but it’s nice to have a voice.”

Now with a day off ahead, the Blues board their bus to the airport.

“I’ll tell the bus driver to put on some of that good rock ‘n’ roll music that the kids like to hear,” Berube says, laughing.

It’s a 20-minute ride to the airport, and the team is wheels up at 11 p.m. Mountain Time.

In the air, Berube reviews clips from the game, looking at scoring chances for and against with Alexander, and then doing his routine postgame report with video coach Elliott Mondou.

“We’re getting a lot done tonight because tomorrow we won’t be doing much,” he says.

Meanwhile, a flight attendant asks Berube what he’ll be having for dinner, and for his second and last meal of the day, he orders some short ribs.

“Had a little bit of that, and it was good!” he says.

What about the final coffee count?

“Total?” he asks. “Probably five.”

The plane touches down in St. Louis at 3:03 a.m. CT.

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“It’s great to be home,” Berube says before heading to his car. “It’s a long flight and you get home late, and you’re probably going to be up fairly early tomorrow. But it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow. It’ll be good to see the family, which is great. I’m looking forward to spending the day with them.”

(Top photo of Craig Berube courtesy of the Blues)

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