They missed the playoffs for only the fourth time in franchise history. John Kelly (son of Dan) and Darren Pang are the current team for television coverage, while Scott Warmann, Alexa Datt, Bernie Federko, and Jamie Rivers present the pre-game and post-game shows. 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". KXOK backed out of the contract after just 2 years, and the Blues immediately went back to KMOX, who held the rights until 2000. Aside from Stillman, the ownership group includes Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Andrew Taylor, David Steward, Jim Kavanaugh, John Danforth,. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. [55] The seven individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former Blues executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. 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. [22] This resurgence included an eleven-game winning streak between February and March, in large part thanks to the emergence of the eventual Calder Trophy nominee, rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington. [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. League president John Ziegler said they would try to keep the team in St. Louis. In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse. Contact Information: print. 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. However, St. Louis ended their first-round losing streak by beating Chicago 32 in game 7 of the series. Defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. 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. Indeed, many of the Blues' players liked the fact that their families could hear the games on KMOX. "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. 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. St. Louis businessman Tom Stillman and his band of investment brothers will announce today they have closed a deal to purchase the Blues. St. Louis Blues (1958) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Prior to that, he worked at the New York . The Blues lost more players as Jay Bouwmeester suffered a season-ending injury, and Jaden Schwartz missed a large portion of the season. During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. While the Blues contended during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey . The team did not even participate in the 1983 NHL draft, forfeiting all of its picks. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. 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. The Blues skated back to KPLR 3 years later. 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. 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. C Dave Checketts D John Danforth L Bill Laurie O Harry Ornest S SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC The St. Louis Blues medical team is a group of Washington University in St. Louis orthopedic specialists from Barnes-Jewish Hospital led by Washington University in St. Louis' Chief of Sports Medicine Matthew Matava.[39]. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, 4 killed, 4 critically injured in crash at South Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue, Parents push back on allegations against St. Louis transgender center. Off the ice, the cash-poor Checketts operated with an Ornest-like budget; on the ice the team continued to stockpile picks and promise. But the memorable season came to an abrupt end at the hands of the surging Los Angles Kings. He scored 16 points in 13 games after his arrival, but the season ended in frustration as the Blues lost Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals to Detroit. It wasn't. With Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guzar, Jerome Cowan. The Keenan coup wound up being a catastrophe. Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. The Blues also dealt away Paul Stastny to the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline for their 1st round pick as they won only 23 games of their remaining 51, but they still had a chance to get into the playoffs on the last day of their season against the Colorado Avalanche. Hi I have 4 tickets to the blues game tonight vs the San Jose sharks. Looking at losses of more than $10 million over six seasons, the pet food giant put the Blues up for sale and in January 1983, announced it had a buyer in Saskatoon-based Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd. Batoni's president, Bill Hunter, said his group was ready to break ground on a $43 million building, which could be ready for the Saskatoon Blues in time for the 1983-84 season. [25] This all but assured that Berube would have the "interim" tag removed from his title, which occurred two weeks after their Cup victory. New owners take over Blues BY TOM TIMMERMANN May 10, 2012 0 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (left) introduces new St. Louis Blues majority owner Tom Stillman during a press conference on. 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. 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. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. The moves kept sportswriters busy and fans captivated, and often infuriated opposing executives. 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. Albums. One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach. 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. Ryan O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. Steve Ott also left the team, signing a free-agent deal with the Red Wings. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. 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. Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. Minority owner Wolfson and Blues president Emile Francis persuaded Ralston Purina executive R. Hal Dean to invest in the franchise. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. Bill Laurieis an American former basketball player and coach, and current business executive and philanthropist. However, they would continue their strong play even despite being plagued with various other injuries, consistently remaining at or near the top of the Western Conference. 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. They fired their head coach, Davis Payne, and named Ken Hitchcock as his replacement on November 6, 2011. The team finished last in the division and disbanded after one season. This list may not reflect recent changes . 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. Gretzky, whose wife is a native St. Louisan, personally approved the trade and was prepared to finish his illustrious career with the Blues. 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. Since the St. Louis Blues were founded in 1967, the team has had a number of owners. His successor, William Stiritz, wanted to refocus on the core pet food business, and his personal sporting interests were in horse racing and not hockey. In 1980-81, with Berenson behind the bench, the Blues had a 107-point season and put hockey back on the St. Louis radar. 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. Maybe eight will be worth the wait. On November 3, 2007, the fans voted on his name on the Blues' web site. The group becomes the eighth to hold the keys to the franchise since its inception. The following numbers have been retired from use within the St. Louis Blues: In addition to the aforementioned numbers, the NHL also retired Wayne Gretzky's number 99 from use for all of its members teams, including the Blues, at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. The bottom of the numbers taper off to give way to the aforementioned stripes. This led to a Norris Division semi-finals exit against the Chicago Black Hawks. Dean was the key figure in Ralston Purina's takeover of the St. Louis Blues after the 1976-77 season. The next few seasons became like a broken record. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. 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). 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 jumped to a 31 series lead, but struggled in games 5 and 6. [20] On November 19, 2018, the Blues fired head coach Mike Yeo after starting the season with a 793 record and replaced him with Craig Berube on an interim basis. 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. Team owner puts St. Louis Blues up for sale 5 is #1 Show Me 5 Sally Sally Jessy Raphael at KSDK Today In St. Louis Be the first to know Making a Difference Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball. 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. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The team started the season by posting a record of 1012 in their first 13 home games. 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. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. That was the highlight of the Ornest years; the bottom fell out soon after. At the beginning of the 200607 season, the Blues looked to be competitive in the Central Division. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. Like all NHL teams, the Blues updated their jerseys for the 200708 season with new Rbk Edge jerseys. However, the station was never financially competitive in the market. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. The Black Hawks owners felt they could establish a "lovable loser" (much like the Cubs) with the St. Louis hockey team. It then took control of the franchise and began searching for a new owner. Payne was previously the head coach of the Blues top minor league affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League (AHL).[16]. The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. Early life[edit] Laurie grew up in rural Missouri. Blues Front Office Ownership Tom Stillman, Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Taylor, David Steward, James Kavanaugh, John. Finally, in March 2006, the Lauries completed the sale of the team and the Savvis Center lease to SCP and a private equity firm, TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P. Photo by Scott C. Dine/St. He was 78. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. 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. The Blues, who have never won the Cup, are marginally profitable during the. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. 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. In 1984, the Blues drastically redesigned their look, adding red and darkening the shade of blue. For the first time in five years (that is, since the lockout), the Blues were in the playoffs. 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. 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. March 3, 2023 by Marcus Ashpaugh. Ornest ran the Blues very cheaply, though the players did not mind. These are the top-ten-point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise playoff history. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. 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. 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." Weight was again traded in December 2007 to the Anaheim Ducks, along with a minor league player, in exchange for Andy McDonald. Although they had finished in third place, St. Louis was regarded as fairly evenly matched with the other three Western qualifiers since only four points separated first and fourth place. 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. As part of the expansion, the NHL had agreed to put all of the expansion teams in the new Western Division, an arrangement which was intended to ensure all of the new teams all had an equal chance of reaching the playoffs. [48] The longest-running fan publication, Game Night Revue, was created by a group of fans in the mold of the Chicago Blackhawks' Blue Line Magazine. This third jersey was unveiled on September 21, 2008, and debuted during a Blues' home game against the Anaheim Ducks on November 21, 2008. 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. They would finish second in the Western Conference, behind the Vancouver Canucks. Blues owners. Following the 198081 season, the television broadcasts moved from KDNL to NBC affiliate KSD-TV for the 198182 season, produced by Sports Network Incorporated (SNI), owned and operated by Greg Maracek who did the broadcasts with Channel 5 sportscaster Ron Jacober. The Blues are currently the only team in the four major North American sports (ice hockey, basketball, baseball, and American football) to be owned by a private equity firm. 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. They also had strong goaltending led by Mike Liut. 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. Behind the solid goaltending of Brian Elliott and scoring heroics of Andy McDonald, the Blues defeated the Sharks in five games, advancing to the conference semifinals. An updated version of the blue sweater, produced by Adidas, was brought back in 2019 as their 90s Vintage Jersey.. Oct 17, 2016. 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. A third-round loss to Colorado in 2000-01 was especially deflating. To this day, in terms of contention, the Salomon group remains the most successful of the Blues owners. Guided by young coach Joel Quenneville, built on the backline presence of MacInnis and Chris Pronger who came in the Shanahan deal the Blues embarked on one of their most rewarding periods. Only Wayne Gretzky found the net more than Hull during any given three-year period. He was introduced on October 10, 2007. After an ice plant was installed, the minor league St. Louis Flyers began play there in 1929. Local ownership group aims to 'put the Blues on solid financial footing.'. After Dan Kelly's death, Ken Wilson became St. Louis Blues' lead television play-by-play announcer alongside former Blues' players Joe Micheletti and Bruce Affleck. Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. The cash-poor Ornest then ran the franchise on a skeletal budget. Incensed, Ralston Purina sued the NHL, padlocked the Checkerdome and abandoned the franchise, leaving a mess for the league to sort out. 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. [23] On June 12, 2019, the Blues defeated the Bruins 41 in Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup. Hockey-crazy Stillman is the latest to try his luck where so many others have failed. The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. He also purchased the Checkerdome from Ralston Purina for $5 million, then raised $3 million in operating expenses. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. The mistake was that play resumed before the chorus was over and the music had to stop. With silver-jacketed organist Norm Kramer pumping out "When the Blues Go Marching In," hockey became a happening in St. Louis. 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. st louis blues traditions. [30] In 201011, the team sold out every home game. However, they only won three games on the road during the first two months of the season. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/St. Following the disappointing 200506 season, which saw the Blues with the worst record in the NHL, the new management focused on rebuilding the franchise. "[50][51] And it did take them to the Stanley Cup. [Brian O'Reilly (Ryan's dad)] I want to thank all of St Louis especially Doug Armstrong. 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. Over the next few years, the franchise became one of the most colorful and controversial in the NHL. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. During that time, Salomon gained a reputation throughout the NHL as the top players' owner. On June 13, 2016, it was announced that Mike Yeo would replace Hitchcock as head coach of the Blues following the 201617 season. On December 11, 2006, the Blues fired head coach Mike Kitchen and replaced him with former Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray. In 201415, the Blues won their second Central Division championship in four years and faced the Minnesota Wild in round one of the 2015 playoffs. Jeremy Rutherford is the lead Blues beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Blues' successes in the late 1960s, however, did not continue into the 1970s. 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. In fact, they made it to the conference finals only two times in their streak (1986 and 2001). While the Blues had returned to respectability on the ice, they were struggling off it. 0. [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. Doug Wickenheiser's overtime goal in Game 6 to cap a furious comeback remains one of the greatest moments in team history (known locally as the "Monday Night Miracle"), but the Blues lost Game 7, 21. The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. The emotional win two days earlier notwitstanding, the Blues lost Game 7 of the playoffs in Calgary, falling short of the Cup finals. Photo by UPI, St. Louis Blues chairman Mike Shanahan at a game in January of 1987, agonizing from the owner's box. Tom Stillman becomes the eighth owner in Blues franchise history.