[45], The Blues were one of the last teams to add a goal horn, doing so during the 199293 season at the St. Louis Arena. 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. [41] However, during the 2019 playoffs, Laura Branigan's "Gloria" was played first before The Urge song. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey . [55] The seven individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former Blues executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. 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. Despite these losses, the Blues raced out to a 2182 start in their first 31 games. 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. Things got worse after Keenan orchestrated a bold trade to acquire Wayne Gretzky late in the 1995-96 season. St. Louis was the last of the six expansion teams to gain entry into the League; the market was chosen over Baltimore at the insistence of the Black Hawks owners, James D. Norris and Arthur Wirtz. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. In the Round Robin tournament for the four top-seeded teams of the conference, the Blues failed to get a win, and thus despite winning the regular-season conference title, they ended up being the fourth seed in the West. 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. They would finish second in the Western Conference, behind the Vancouver Canucks. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1987 to 1998. Photo by UPI, St. Louis Blues chairman Mike Shanahan at a game in January of 1987, agonizing from the owner's box. The emotional win two days earlier notwitstanding, the Blues lost Game 7 of the playoffs in Calgary, falling short of the Cup finals. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian . On November 14, 2005, the Blues announced that SCP Worldwide had officially withdrawn from negotiations to buy the team. 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. The 2016 offseason saw big changes for the Blues, as team captain David Backes left the team to sign with the Boston Bruins, and goaltender Brian Elliott was traded to the Calgary Flames, while veteran forward Troy Brouwer also signed with Calgary as a free agent. The St. Louis Blues presently acknowledge an affiliation with a number of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame. [36] A second "Reverse Retro" uniform was released in the 202223 season, this time based on the prototype uniforms the team first leaked in 1966 before eventually releasing the more iconic "blue note" uniforms. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1967 to 1984. The Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. It wasn't. On October 2, 2007, the Blues finalized the season-starting roster, which included rookies David Perron, Steven Wagner and Erik Johnson. On February 12, 2020, the Blues suffered another loss as defenseman Jay Bouwmeester suddenly collapsed on the bench in a game against the Anaheim Ducks, and would not come back to play again in the season. Ryan O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. They would also pick up Brayden Schenn from the Philadelphia Flyers by giving away Jori Lehtera. Jason Pippi stated "its just a testament to the passion Blues fans bring each and every night to the Cup (Stanley Cup) maybe? Gretzky, whose wife is a native St. Louisan, personally approved the trade and was prepared to finish his illustrious career with the Blues. The jersey brought back the contrasting shoulder yoke and returned to the lighter blue of previous eras. Just before the 2007 NHL trade deadline, the Blues traded several key players, including Bill Guerin, Keith Tkachuk and Dennis Wideman, in exchange for draft picks, though they re-signed Tkachuk after the season ended. But the memorable season came to an abrupt end at the hands of the surging Los Angles Kings. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". After the 200405 lockout, the Blues' attendance suffered, but has since improved every year since its all-time low in 200607. Although perennial postseason contenders for most of their history, the franchise frequently struggled in the playoffs, including consecutive Stanley Cup Finals defeats at the end of their first three seasons. st louis blues traditions. He gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. Hull's 86 goals set the record for most goals in a single season by a right-winger (and the third-most overall at the time). In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. 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. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/St. Declining revenue reached a critical stage by the end of the 1976-77 season, and the Blues reduced their management staff to three. Tom Stillman becomes the eighth owner in Blues franchise history. Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. The standard for other teams was 60 players. 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]. Nonetheless, the team remained competitive for the next three years, despite never advancing beyond the second round. [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. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. A new company who had purchased KXOK won the bid for a three-year contract and Kelly moved over from KMOX to do the games on KXOK. Phil Goyette won the Lady Byng Trophy for the Blues in 1970 and New York Rangers castoff Red Berenson became the expansion team's first major star at center. Jeremy Boyer, the Blues organist, plays a Glenn Miller arrangement of W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" in its entirety before games and a short version at the end of every period, followed by "When the Saints Go Marching In." 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. The team slipped under .500 the following season and managed just 65 points in 1982-83. Country Roads has been played during every Home game since, at approximately the 15:00 minute mark of the 3rd Period, regardless of the current score. Blues Jump Blues/Piano Blues St. Louis Blues. When the period of exclusivity expired without a deal, SCP jumped back into the picture. [46] All of these traditions carried over to the Kiel Center (now known as Enterprise Center) in 1994. The song has since been retired; the last time they played it was during the raising of the Stanley Cup Championship banner ceremony on October 2, 2019. [26] Shortly after the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, Karla May of the Missouri Senate introduced a bill which would officially designate several items as state symbols of Missouri; including the Blues being as the state's official hockey team. The group becomes the eighth to hold the keys to the franchise since its inception. Only Wayne Gretzky found the net more than Hull during any given three-year period. Inductees affiliated with the Blues include 24 former players (six of whom earned their credentials primarily with the Blues) and seven builders of the sport. Ralston Purina lost an estimated $1.8 million a year during its six-year ownership of the Blues. At the beginning of the 200607 season, the Blues looked to be competitive in the Central Division. Menu. The St. Louis Blues are one of the more successful NHL teams in terms of attendance. He purchased the team and its player contracts for $3 million in cash and $9 million in two notes. That included Federko, Gassoff, Hull, MacInnis, Bob and Barclay Plager, Pronger and Sutter, along with Kelly, the Blues' legendary broadcaster. While the Blues remained competitive, they were unable to keep many of their young players. "[40] On October 1, 2018, it was reported that, for the upcoming season, a new goal song recorded by St. Louis-based band The Urge, "The Blues Have The Urge," would be played after Blues goals, immediately following the traditional organ music. After losing Vladimir Tarasenko to injury during the game, the Blues lost to the Avalanche 52 as they missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years. St. Louis soon began to attract the interest as a potential NHL market, eventually leading the owners of the moribund Ottawa Senators to relocate there for the 1934-35 season. St. Louis has embraced team's victory anthem", "The history behind the NHL's ubiquitous sound for scoring: the goal horn", "A Look at Five St. Louis Blues' Superfans", "Celebrate 20 years of fan-run papers on Friday", "How did 'Country Roads' become a Blues home-game staple? The son of legendary Bobby Hull, the "Golden Brett" became the face of the franchise, with his magical name and sublime scoring touch. Ultimately, it was the Blues who prevailed by winning in seven games each over the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars to reach the 1968 Stanley Cup Finals. While they kept the Reebok Edge-era template, they brought back the 19982007 look. The Blues have worn blue and white jerseys with the famous "Blue Note" crest and gold accents since their inception in 1967. The long-term partnership between KMOX and the Blues had its problems, however, namely during spring when the ever-popular St. Louis Cardinals began their season. [12] To date, this is the closest that an NHL team has come to folding since the Cleveland Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars after the 197778 season. He returned to California with $3.4 million in profit on the sale of the Blues and $8.2 million in profit on the sale of the Arena. In 1978-79, the Blues won 18 of 80 games, or just one more than the NFL's 1972 Miami Dophins. Since the 201920 preseason, WXOS (101 ESPN) has been the flagship radio station for the Blues. [10] Ralston called the counter-suit "ridiculous" and gave the NHL an ultimatum: if the NHL would not accept Hunter's offer by June 14, Ralston would dissolve the team and sell its players and assets to other teams. A look at the ownership lineage: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. It operated for over 10 years, from 1994 to 2005, when its owner decided not to resume the magazine after the 200405 NHL lockout (one final oversized "goodbye" issue was distributed the first two home games of the 200506 season). The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. [58] Gretzky had previously played for the Blues in 1996, although the Blues did not retire his number prior to its league-wide retirement. The arena was previously known as Scottrade Center, the Savvis Center, and before that as the Kiel Center. Moreover, for the first time in club history, the normally excellent support seen by St. Louisans began decrease, with crowds normally numbering around 12,000, notably less than the team's normal high (about 18,000 in a 19,500-seat arena). Hi I have 4 tickets to the blues game tonight vs the San Jose sharks. [55] Dan Kelly, the Blues' radio play-by-play announcer, was awarded the first Blues broadcaster to receive the award in 1989. 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. However, they were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2000 playoffs in seven games. All that hardware notwithstanding, hopes for a Stanley Cup run turned to stunning disappointment. Early life[edit] Laurie grew up in rural Missouri. The Blues joined the league in 1967, one of six expansion teams that doubled the size of the NHL from six to 12. The Blues got off to a slow start in their initial season. Blues owners. While the fans were stunned, the players were aware of this. They treated the players to all-expenses-paid Florida vacations when seasons ended and bought them gold wristwatches for scoring hat tricks, etc. The Blues play in the 19,150 (not counting standing room) capacity Enterprise Center, where they have played since 1994. Jeremy Rutherford is the lead Blues beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. For the full season-by-season history, see List of St. Louis Blues seasons, Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against. Years later, Sutter argued that had the Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, they would have likely beaten the Canadiens, having won two out of three games against the Habs in the regular season. In 1984, the Blues drastically redesigned their look, adding red and darkening the shade of blue. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena." 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. Local ownership group aims to 'put the Blues on solid financial footing.'. 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. [32], When Adidas became the uniform provider before the 201718 season, the Blues kept most of the same template, with the exception of the home jersey numbers changing from gold to white. In 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference finals and produced one of its signature moments, a "Monday Night Miracle" comeback victory in Game 6. The NHL also said that Ralston broke a league rule that an owner had to give two years' notice before dissolving a franchise. 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem", "PLAY GLORIA! Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. The jersey introduced the short-lived trumpet logo on the shoulders and featured thin diagonal stripes on the tail and sleeves. The Cardinals moved back to KMOX in the 2011 season, with conflicting games moved to KYKY, an FM station owned by the same group as KMOX. 5 to the rafters", "Blues retire Pronger's number on 'very special' night in St. Louis", "Perfect setting: Gretzky's number retired before All-Star Game", "Brian Elliott, Blues Stats National Hockey League.com Players", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St._Louis_Blues&oldid=1141928547, Most points in a season: Brett Hull, 131 (199091), Lowest GAA in a season (min 30 GP): Brian Elliott, 1.56 (201112), Best SV% in a season (min 30 GP): Brian Elliott, .940 (201112), This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 16:20. Hull, nicknamed the "Golden Brett" (a reference to his father, NHL legend Bobby Hull, who was nicknamed the "Golden Jet"), became one of the League's top stars and a scoring sensation, netting 86 goals in 199091 en route to earning the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. During this period, the NHL rebuffed attempts at further expansion. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. 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. Quenneville was fired during the 2003-04 season and like so many prominent Blues alumni before him Hull, Shanahan, Stevens, Pronger he went on to win a Cup elsewhere. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. The St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history later that season. MLS in July 2020 pushed the expansion schedule back by a year for both St. Louis and the Charlotte, North Carolina, team that began play last year, saying the Covid-19 pandemic had led to delays . Because they were not required to participate in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, they did not send a representative, which led the Blues to forfeit their picks. However, after the period of exclusivity, SCP entered the picture again. The navy blue third jersey was kept without any alterations, before it was retired prior the 201617 season. The Salomons might have been the most generous employers in sports history. Their situation was not helped by the decision to keep the Eagles in the Canadian Division to keep the divisions balanced, which left the team with unaffordable travel expenses to games in Toronto and Montreal. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. With his aging father stepping back, Sid Salomon III took a more prominent role in running the franchise and upheaval became the order of the day. The uniforms, which had the team name written around the primitive "blue note" logo along with contrasting stripes, had a gold base.[37]. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . In the 1999-2000 season, Quenneville's club won 51 games and collected 114 points, capturing the first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. The Blues would underachieve greatly the following year as they posted a 32408, but they beat the Winnipeg Jets 31 in the Norris Division Semi-Finals before dropping to the Chicago Black Hawks in the Norris Division 24. Instead, a Return to Play tournament was organized, starting in August 2020. This marked the second-straight year the Blues lost in the first round of the playoffs to the reigning champions in six games after leading the series 20. Hull, who had a lengthy feud with Keenan, left for the Dallas Stars in 1998. Coming off their defeat of the Presidents' Trophy winning Canucks, the Kings ousted the Blues in four games. Pronger, Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger were all sent packing. St. Louis Blues: Directed by Raoul Walsh. "[50][51] And it did take them to the Stanley Cup. Contact Information: print. A few months later, in December 1996, both Keenan and executive Jack Quinn were fired. The moneyline in this contest implies a 35.7% chance for the Blues to win. The broadcasts failed to produce a profit and then returned to KPLR for the 1982 NHL playoffs and the 198283 season before returning to KDNL (currently St. Louis' ABC affiliate) for the 198384 season, the first under the ownership of Harry Ornest. Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. 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. Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. Checks were back in the Checkerdome. The bottom of the numbers taper off to give way to the aforementioned stripes. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian accent became famous, such as pronouncing owner Sid Salomon III "Sid the Turd" instead of "Third") joining as an analyst, simulcast on KMOX and KPLRcontinued through the 197576 season, then simulcast on KMOX and KDNL-TV for the next three seasons. Caron was reinstated as interim general manager for the rest of the season, and general manager Larry Pleau was hired on June 9, 1997. Chris Kerber and Joe Vitale are the current radio broadcast team. Ralston renamed the arena the "Checkerdome." No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. The Blues season would come to an end at the hands of the San Jose Sharks, who eliminated them in six games. He also purchased the Checkerdome from Ralston Purina for $5 million, then raised $3 million in operating expenses. Reluctant to give up on the St. Louis market, the NHL blocked the sale. . The moves kept. 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. Disillusioned by Keenan's contentious style, Gretzky became a free agent and departed for New York. The Blues missed the playoffs during the first four full seasons of new ownership. During the season, he publicly criticized Gretzky, who entered free agency after the season, declined an offer from the Blues, and took a less lucrative contract with the New York Rangers. On March 17, 2012, the Blues became the first team to reach 100 points and clinch a playoff berth in the 201112 season under Hitchcock, qualifying for their first playoffs since 200809. After spending the first half of the 200809 season at or near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, the Blues began to turn things around behind the solid goaltending of Chris Mason. According to Sutter, they wanted to stay in St. Louis because it reminded them of the rural Canadian towns where many of them grew up. While the disappointment of that series loss is still fresh, hope springs eternal with the announcement that a new ownership group is in place. Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. In each instance, the Blues were swept in four games, twice by the Montreal Canadiens and lastly by the Boston Bruins. The players, used to being treated like mere commodities, felt the only way they could pay him back was to give their best on the ice every night.[6]. "Our new ownership group is 100 percent local, and we are 100 percent committed to the Blues and to St. Louis." Stillman asked for support from fans, local businesses and the rest of the community. "[42], Starting in 2014, the team introduced a win song in the form of Pitbull's "Don't Stop The Party",[43] but from 2016 to 2018, the win song was "Song 2" by Blur after public backlash against using a Pitbull song. [33] For the 201819 season, the Blues added a third jersey based on the one worn during the 2017 NHL Winter Classic. 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. In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. He was 78. "We've given them the extreme honor, so it's. san jose sharks vs . 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.
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