They were again eliminated by Los Angeles, however, this time in six games in the first round of the playoffs, despite taking an initial 20 series lead. In response, the Blues moved back to KMOX starting in the 200607 season. Keenan instituted major changes, including trades that sent away fan favorites Brendan Shanahan and Curtis Joseph, as well as the acquisition of the legendary-but-aging Wayne Gretzky and goaltender Grant Fuhr, both from the declining Los Angeles Kings. Center David Backes has been named a finalist for the Frank Selke Trophy as the league's top two-way player. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. 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. After each goal, a bell is rung and each of the goals are counted by the crowd. Bucknor for rejecting handshake: Zero class, Man shot and killed after fight in downtown St. Louis, Fate of St. Louis Fox Theatre still undecided, Liberty High student killed in St. Charles shooting could heal you with a smile, Brothers who did everything together, fashionista among victims in fatal St. Louis crash, St. Louis prosecutors staff down by nearly half as caseloads jump. [14] Davidson also installed a strong development program under head scout Jarmo Kekalainen, using the team's raft of high draft picks in 2006 and 2007 to select highly touted prospects such as T. J. Oshie, Erik Johnson and David Perron. The uniforms, which had the team name written around the primitive "blue note" logo along with contrasting stripes, had a gold base.[37]. [15] The team later traded veteran defenseman Bryce Salvador to the New Jersey Devils for enforcer, and St. Louis native, Cam Janssen. 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. 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. Category:St. Louis Blues owners Pages in category "St. Louis Blues owners" The following 5 pages are in this category, out of 5 total. Instead, a Return to Play tournament was organized, starting in August 2020. Overview. * current Blues player After losing Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals, the team beat the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 at Scottrade Center, securing its first playoff game victory since 2004. It also replaced red with navy blue as an accent color. 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem", "PLAY GLORIA! The Blues will receive 27-year-old forward Jakub Vrana . Prior to that, he worked at the New York . Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/St. 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 Blues Players. 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 Berenson trade did bring then-Detroit Red Wings star center Garry Unger, who ultimately scored 30 goals in eight consecutive seasons while breaking the NHL's consecutive games played record. While the Blues remained competitive, they were unable to keep many of their young players. They also had strong goaltending led by Mike Liut. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. This article is about the ice hockey team. But with Ron Caron as the general manager and Jacques Demers as the coach, with Federko and Sutter as the foundation, the Blues were competitive. However, St. Louis was swept in their first Finals appearance by the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens. On October 2, 2007, the Blues finalized the season-starting roster, which included rookies David Perron, Steven Wagner and Erik Johnson. 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. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. Veteran player Al Arbour hastily stepped in to coach the team. The emotional win two days earlier notwitstanding, the Blues lost Game 7 of the playoffs in Calgary, falling short of the Cup finals. While the Blues contended during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs. He purchased the team and its player contracts for $3 million in cash and $9 million in two notes. On November 3, 2007, the fans voted on his name on the Blues' web site. Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. The Blues announced plans for a navy third jersey featuring a new logo, with the Gateway Arch with the Blue Note superimposed over it inside a circle with the words "St. Louis" above and "Blues" below. John Davidson, received the award in 2009 for his contributions in television broadcasting. 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. Jason Pippi stated "its just a testament to the passion Blues fans bring each and every night to the Cup (Stanley Cup) maybe? "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. [4] Garagnani would never see the Blues franchise take the ice, as he died from a heart attack on June 19, 1967, less than three months before the Blues played their first preseason game. Fan support was sluggish during the first half of the campaign, and the end of the calendar year was capped by an 11-game losing streak. Arbour, who officially retired as a player after the 197071 season, would remain behind the Blues' bench for the next two seasons. He gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. KXOK backed out of the contract after just 2 years, and the Blues immediately went back to KMOX, who held the rights until 2000. No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. The Checkerboard Square chief even re-painted the fading Arena and re-dubbed it the Checkerdome. Disillusioned by Keenan's contentious style, Gretzky became a free agent and departed for New York. During the 2018 NHL offseason, the Blues acquired forward Ryan O'Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres via trade and re-signed Perron to a third stint with the team in free agency, while also signing forwards Tyler Bozak, St. Louis native Pat Maroon, and goaltender Chad Johnson. [47], The team also has a long tradition of fan-produced programs, sold outside the arena and providing an often biting, sarcastic, humor-filled alternative to team- and League-produced periodicals. Following the disappointing 200506 season, which saw the Blues with the worst record in the NHL, the new management focused on rebuilding the franchise. However, despite the music stopping, the loyal Blues fans in attendance continued to sing loudly. 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. Under the expansion playoff format, Bowman's leadership was enough as the Blues qualified for the playoffs in their inaugural season. Despite defeating the Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Winter Classic by the score of 41, the Blues fired Hitchcock and promoted Yeo to head coach on February 1, 2017. The blue jerseys lacked the contrasting yoke until 1979. In between seasons and during trade deadlines, the Blues became a must-see attraction. In addition, the contrasting shoulder yoke was removed. In 1981, Dean retired. It then took control of the franchise and began searching for a new owner. Weight was again traded in December 2007 to the Anaheim Ducks, along with a minor league player, in exchange for Andy McDonald. 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 traditions. Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey . In 19992000, the team notched a franchise-record 114 points during the regular season, earning the Presidents' Trophy for the League's best record. Attendance plummeted, from 18,560 a game in 2003-04 to 12,520 in 2006-07. The Blues jumped to a 31 series lead, but struggled in games 5 and 6. In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. [17] During the 2011 NHL offseason, the team signed many key free agents, including Brian Elliott, Scott Nichol, Kent Huskins, Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner. Hitchcock is a finalist for the Jack Adams coaching award and Doug Armstrong is a contender for general manager of the year. The former New York Rangers goaltender promptly made multiple blockbuster deals, picking up Jay McKee, Bill Guerin and Manny Legace from free agency, and bringing Doug Weight back to St. Louis after a brief (and productive) stopover in Carolina. Jake Allen was now the starting goaltender for the Blues, while the team also signed former Nashville Predators backup Carter Hutton. [35], Prior to the 202021 season, the Blues unveiled a "Reverse Retro" alternate uniform based on the design worn from 1995 to 1998, but with a red base. During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. The arena quickly became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues' home. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". To this day, in terms of contention, the Salomon group remains the most successful of the Blues owners. Starting after a couple of players heard "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, after their win in Philadelphia on January 3, 2019, the team started to use the song after every home win, and lasted all the way up to their Stanley Cup win. Movies. 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. In fact, they made it to the conference finals only two times in their streak (1986 and 2001). St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman is a former lawyer who worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce where he was Chief Counsel for Export Administration. Last chance! In 57.4% of St. Louis' previous games this season (35/61), the teams combined to score over Saturday's over/under of 6.5 goals. 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. 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. The Black Hawks treated St. Louis as a secondary market, placing minor league affiliates there and even playing a few NHL games in St. Louis during the 1950's while the team still struggled to sell tickets at Chicago Stadium. He has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Rivers also fills in on color commentary whenever Pang is on a national TV assignment for the NHL on TNT. List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end of the season . New Blues ownership group Tom Stillman, chairman and CEO of Summit Distributing Donn Lux, Luxco chairman and CEO Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation Steve. [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. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ruth and Harry Ornest, holding court during their reign with the St. Louis Blues, on July 12, 1985. They sought to unload what was then a decrepit facility which had not been well-maintained since the 1940s, and thus pressed the NHL to give the franchise to St. Louis, which had not submitted a formal expansion bid. There is a lot of money riding on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals for St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. You have permission to edit this article. During the late 1990s, the Blues nurtured a new identity. The Salomons might have been the most generous employers in sports history. This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Blues. 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. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. On January 4, 2007, the Blues had a record of 613 in their previous ten games, which was the best in the NHL during that stretch. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994.