Beginnings and Stanley Cup Finals' appearances (19671970), Financial problems, near-relocation, and playoff streak (19701987), End of the playoff streak, lockout, and rebuild (19982011), Return to contention, first Stanley Cup championship (2011present), Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 16:20, "City Gets Big League Hockey; New Team Begins NHL Play in 196768 Season", "Musial Partner 'Biggie' Dies; Political Figure", "PHT Time Machine: When Blues skipped NHL draft", "Gettysburg Times - Google News Archive Search", "The Lewiston Daily Sun - Google News Archive Search", "Davis Payne will remain team's head coach St Louis Blues", "St. Louis Blues for sale after five years of Dave Checketts' ownership", "Predators defeat Blues, advance to first conference final", "Gameday Lineup: Sept. 18 at Dallas; O'Reilly, Maroon, Parayko, Thomas and Kyrou expected to play vs. Stars", "Yeo fired as coach of Blues, replaced by Berube on interim basis", "Blues clinch spot in Stanley Cup Playoffs", "Blues Beat the Bruins and Get Their First Stanley Cup Finals Victory", "Blues win Stanley Cup for first time, defeat Bruins in Game 7 of Final", "St. Louis Blues beat Boston Bruins, 41, to win first Stanley Cup", "Black senator from St. Louis passed bill to make Blues official state hockey team", "Chapter 10 10.225. The Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. The Blues' successes in the late 1960s, however, did not continue into the 1970s. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ruth and Harry Ornest, holding court during their reign with the St. Louis Blues, on July 12, 1985. The Blues ended the 1990s as the only NHL team to make the playoffs for the entire decade, although a Stanley Cup title still eluded the franchise. The Keenan coup wound up being a catastrophe. This article is about the ice hockey team. After each Home win, the entire St Louis Blues team skates to center ice and in unison, raise their sticks and clap while the goal horn blares, to thank the Blues fans in attendance and watching on TV. Still desperate for a championship, the Blues made another controversial move in 1995, hiring Mike Keenan right off the staff directory of the Stanley Cup winning New York Rangers. However, they were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2000 playoffs in seven games. St. Louis Blues tends to be a variation on jump blues or piano blues, featuring solo singers or a pianist performing with small combos or large bands. These are the top-ten point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise regular-season history. League president John Ziegler said they would try to keep the team in St. Louis. Gary Bettman -- St. Louis Blues' future 'bright' with new owners Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. Two months later, they traded Doug Weight, a 38-year-old four-time All-Star center, to the Anaheim Ducks as part of a package to acquire 30-year-old center Andy McDonald. Blues games, many of which were crucial to playoff berths, would often be pre-empted for spring training coverage. The team would dominate the postseason awards, as Pronger earned a Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player, Pavol Demitra got the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play and Quenneville was named coach of the year. Mike Keenan was hired as both general manager and coach before the abbreviated 199495 season, with the hope that he could end the postseason turmoil that Blues fans had endured for years. In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com Photo by J.B. Forbes, staff photographer. On May 29, the Blues won a Stanley Cup Finals series game for the first time in franchise history after getting swept in three previous series (19681970), when they defeated the Boston Bruins 32 in overtime. This division was particularly weak, and in 197677, the Blues won it while finishing five games below .500, though this would be their last playoff appearance in the decade. It also replaced red with navy blue as an accent color. Weight was again traded in December 2007 to the Anaheim Ducks, along with a minor league player, in exchange for Andy McDonald. The Blues simplified their design, with only the blue note logo on the front; there were no third jerseys for the season. Since the St. Louis Blues were founded in 1967, the team has had a number of owners. In 1981, Dean retired. The standard for other teams was 60 players. Jake Allen was now the starting goaltender for the Blues, while the team also signed former Nashville Predators backup Carter Hutton. In the offseason for the 201718 season, the Blues would lose David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights via an expansion draft. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. He went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Stars the next year, scoring a controversial goal on the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek to clinch the Cup for Dallas. Originally, the Blues aired their games on KPLR-TV and KMOX radio, with team patron Gus Kyle calling games alongside St Louis broadcasting legend Jack Buck. Blues Jump Blues/Piano Blues St. Louis Blues. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. The moves kept. The Enterprise Center was electric and buzzing with excitement with anticipation of the win. You have permission to edit this article. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. On February 8, 2008, it was announced that, after going much of the season without a captain, defenseman Eric Brewer was chosen as the team's 19th captain. Since 1990, Ron Baechle, also known as the "Towel Man" or "Towel Guy," has celebrated each goal by counting with the bell and throwing a towel into the crowd from section 314. For the song, see. Blues owners - STLtoday.com Following the Black Hawks' championship in 1961, the team became much more successful at the box office in Chicago, thus St. Louis was no longer useful as a secondary market. The son of legendary Bobby Hull, the "Golden Brett" became the face of the franchise, with his magical name and sublime scoring touch. Their chance of winning the Central Division title, the top seed in the West, and the Presidents' Trophy would all evaporate, after they lost their final six games and wound up in second place in the Division, this time to the Colorado Avalanche. St Louis Blues Players. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they make plans to put together a musical revue. When Red Berenson scored six goals in a game on Nov. 7, 1968, ownership presented the outdoor enthusiast with a new station wagon, a canoe attached to the top and a Browning 20-gauge shotgun inside. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. Last chance! Soon after, Ornest sold the Blues to a group led by Michael Shanahan, head of Engineered Support Systems Inc. Defenseman Chris Pronger (acquired from the Hartford Whalers in 1995 for Brendan Shanahan), Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis and goaltender Roman Turek kept the Blues a contender in the NHL. On January 12, 1983, Batoni-Hunter Enterprises Ltd., led by WHA and Edmonton Oilers founder Bill Hunter, tendered an offer to buy the team. After an ice plant was installed, the minor league St. Louis Flyers began play there in 1929. Ryan O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. In addition to players and builders, the team recognizes an affiliation with two broadcasters who were awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame. The jersey brought back the contrasting shoulder yoke and returned to the lighter blue of previous eras. The arena was previously known as Scottrade Center, the Savvis Center, and before that as the Kiel Center. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. The mistake was that play resumed before the chorus was over and the music had to stop. But the renaissance was short-lived. The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and California Seals. However, in an ironic twist the Cards purchased a controlling interest in KTRS in 2005, and once again preferred to air preseason baseball over regular-season hockey. They captured the Jennings Trophy once more for allowing the fewest goals in the league (165). After his duties as interim coach for the rest of the 200910 season, Davis Payne was named the 23rd head coach in the Blues' history on April 14. During the 2012 playoffs, they won their first playoff series since 2002, eliminating the San Jose Sharks in five games. 0. Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. With silver-jacketed organist Norm Kramer pumping out "When the Blues Go Marching In," hockey became a happening in St. Louis. The season of 200809 saw the Blues play their last game on KPLR, which had the rights since the 198687 season (except for the 199697 season on CBS affiliate KMOV), electing to move all their games to FS Midwest, starting with the 200910 season. The Blues remain 0-12 in Stanley Cup finals play. With the Blues' victory in their fourth Stanley Cup Finals, 49 years after their last appearance and in their 52nd year of existence, they became the final active team from the 1967 expansion to win their first Stanley Cup. With Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guzar, Jerome Cowan. St. Louis Blues: Directed by Raoul Walsh. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- St. Louis Blues minority owner David L. Steward was celebrating on the TD Garden ice with his son after the Blues defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of . Albums. Like the other five expansion teams, the Blues' roster consisted primarily of castoffs from the Original Six and players who had previously never managed to break out of the minor leagues. In fact, several of the Blues' young stars, such as Rob Ramage, Joe Mullen and Gilmour, were main cogs in the Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup win. As general manager and coach, Keenan traded away the popular Brendan Shanahan, tested patience with other curious transactions and cultivated a toxic relationship with Hull. The initial results were not good. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. This was partly due to the pressures of the World Hockey Association (WHA), but mostly the result of financial decisions made when the Salomons first acquired the franchise. [27] The bill was signed into law by Mike Parson, the Governor of Missouri, with the revised statute becoming effective August 29, 2019. Ornest ran the Blues very cheaply, though the players did not mind. Brandon Saad and Robert Thomas both recorded a goal and an assist, helping the Blues earn a 5-2 win over the Predators at home 04:56 January 19, 2023 ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad and Robert. [41] However, during the 2019 playoffs, Laura Branigan's "Gloria" was played first before The Urge song. They missed the playoffs for only the fourth time in franchise history. St. Louis Blues (1939) - IMDb On November 3, 2007, the fans voted on his name on the Blues' web site. Blues Chairman Tom Stillman confirmed . They would get rewarded as head coach Red Berenson won the Jack Adams Award, Mike Liut finished a close second to Wayne Gretzky in the Hart Trophy voting, and earned the top spot on the NHL All-Star team, Larry Patey finished third in the Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, and Blake Dunlop won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. [13] After that season, Ornest sold the team to a group led by St. Louis businessman Michael Shanahan. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena." "[50][51] And it did take them to the Stanley Cup. And within two years, Hull also was gone, left unsigned to continue a Hall of Fame career with Stanley Cup championships in Dallas and Detroit. General manager Ron Caron made astute moves, landing forwards Brett Hull, Adam Oates and Brendan Shanahan, defenseman Al MacInnis and goaltender Curtis Joseph, among others. Early in the morning of trade deadline day, the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings agreed to a deal. However, Dean took the losses philosophically, having taken over out of a sense of civic responsibility. While the Blues contended during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs. In the end, when the legal dodgeball and financial haggling between the league and Ralston Purina settled, when the budget squeezing and penny-pinching was complete, Ornest came out the big winner. More often than not, several of the Blues' emerging stars ended up as Calgary Flames, and the sight of Flames executive Al MacNeil was always greeted with dread. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 197374, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. Although the St. Louis Arena was not originally designed with hockey in mind, it met NHL standards of the era for size and had good sight lines for the game. Steve Ott also left the team, signing a free-agent deal with the Red Wings. The mainstream appeal moved a conglomerate of corporate leaders to buy out Shanahan and build the Kiel Center (now the Scottrade Center), opening the downtown doors in 1994. These distractions would greatly affect their performance as they squeezed into the playoffs with a 254015 record in the 1983 season, good enough for 65 points. The next few seasons became like a broken record. While the first Blues teams included fading veterans like Doug Harvey, Don McKenney and Dickie Moore, the goaltending tandem of veterans Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante proved more durable, winning a Vezina Trophy in 1969 behind a sterling defense that featured players like skilled defensive forward Jim Roberts, team captain Al Arbour and hardrock brothers Bob and Barclay Plager. In late September, 2005, the Lauries signed an agreement to sell the team to SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment group led by Dave Checketts, former president of New York's Madison Square Garden. Menu. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. Disillusioned by Keenan's contentious style, Gretzky became a free agent and departed for New York. The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. Overview. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1967 to 1984. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the six teams from the 1967 NHL expansion and is named after the W. C. Handy song "Saint Louis Blues". [5] Upon acquiring the franchise in 1966, Salomon then spent several million dollars on extensive renovations for the 38-year-old arena, expanding it from 12,000 seats to 15,000. The team made headlines with free-agent signings and trades that landed stars like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Stevens, Grant Fuhr, Phil Housley and Al MacInnis. But a competing carnival owner hatches a scheme to put an end to the show before it begins. After his death, Ron Jacober (who had left Channel 5 to be KXOK's sports director in 1985 then left for KMOX in 1987) was hired as the radio play-by-play announcer for the remainder of the season, and John Kelly succeeded in that position. Fox Sports Midwest color commentator, Darren Pang, exclaimed he "just loved the crowd, they're singing!". Eventually, the St. Louis Arena came under the control of the owners of the Chicago Black Hawks. Blues owner Tom Stillman, 10 years in: On the road to a Stanley Cup and This ended up being the Blues' last game in the regular season, as the season would be cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic shortly afterwards. Under Bowman, the Blues dominated the West for the next two seasons, becoming the only expansion team to compile a winning record, and they captured division titles by wide margins each year. Nonetheless, their on-ice success was enough for a consortium of 19 companies to buy the team. During the 2007 off-season, the Blues signed free agent Paul Kariya to a three-year contract worth $18million, re-signed defenseman Barret Jackman to a one-year contract, lost their captain Dallas Drake to the Detroit Red Wings, and traded prospect Carl Soderberg to the Bruins in exchange for yet more depth in the goal crease, Hannu Toivonen. But from late December through January the Blues lost only twice in 16 games and grabbed a foothold. In response, the Blues moved back to KMOX starting in the 200607 season. The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. Prior to that, he worked at the New York . QR Code Link to This Post. Wal-Mart heir Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill purchased the Blues in 1999. Checks were back in the Checkerdome. The cash-poor Ornest then ran the franchise on a skeletal budget. Over the next few years, the franchise became one of the most colorful and controversial in the NHL. Caron was reinstated as interim general manager for the rest of the season, and general manager Larry Pleau was hired on June 9, 1997. Members of the Blues' all-local ownership group include Tom Stillman, Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Andrew Taylor, David Steward, Jim. The Blues fired head coach Andy Murray on January 2, 2010, after a disappointing record (17176, 40 points), sitting in 12th place in the Conference. [46] All of these traditions carried over to the Kiel Center (now known as Enterprise Center) in 1994. Tom Stillman becomes the eighth owner in Blues franchise history. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. He asked many players to defer contracts to help meet operating costs and through much of Ornest's tenure, the team operated with a small office staff. The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr., his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. Follow Jeremy P. Rutherford The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues", and plays in the 19,150-seat Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. It was loud enough, TV cameras picked up the song loud and clear. Ten days before the deadline NHL President John Ziegler set for dissolving the franchise, Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Harry Ornest stepped up with the only formal bid. However, after the period of exclusivity, SCP entered the picture again. Seriously underwater., Arch Madness: 2023 MVC Basketball Tournament bracket, schedule, game times, TV info, Centene expects to lose millions of Medicaid customers beginning in April, St. Louis man charged in quadruple fatal crash; police say he ran off with his license plate, Neman: Missouri womans saga of trying to find common sense at Walmart, I can still hear the roaring of the engine, says father of teen maimed in downtown St. Louis. C Dave Checketts D John Danforth L Bill Laurie O Harry Ornest S SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach. Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. A few months later, in December 1996, both Keenan and executive Jack Quinn were fired. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". Additionally, fans complained they could not hear the station at night (it had to readjust its coverage due to a glut of clear channels on adjacent frequencies). Bill Laurie, a former point guard at Memphis State University, had long desired to buy and move a National Basketball Association (NBA) team to St. Louis (coming close to achieving this in 1999, with an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the then-Vancouver Grizzlies), and it was thought that this desire caused him to neglect the Blues. St. Louis has a record of 2-3 in games when bookmakers list them +180 or longer on the moneyline. The Blues lost Bowman, who left during the 197071 season following a power-sharing dispute with Sid Salomon III (who was taking an increasing role in team affairs),[6] as well as Hall, Plante, Goyette and ultimately Berenson, who were all lost to retirement or trade. List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end of the season . Former St. Louis Blues owner Mike Shanahan dies at 78 - USA TODAY On December 27, 2005, it was announced that the Blues had signed a letter of intent to exclusively negotiate with General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. On May 21, the Blues advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1970, defeating the San Jose Sharks in a six-game Western Conference Finals series. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/St. On April 12, the Blues clinched the sixth seed in the West with a 10 win against the Colorado Avalanche. For the first time in five years (that is, since the lockout), the Blues were in the playoffs. They play their home games at the 18,096 seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, which has been their arena since moving from St. Louis Arena in 1994.[3].
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