On September 29, 2005, it was announced that the Lauries had signed an agreement to sell the Blues to SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment group headed by former Madison Square Garden president Dave Checketts. In between seasons and during trade deadlines, the Blues became a must-see attraction. Im baffled., Suspect charged in fatal shooting in downtown St. Louis, Former Sweetie Pies TV star Tim Norman gets two life sentences in nephews death, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol slams ump C.B. However, they were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2000 playoffs in seven games. 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. While the fans were stunned, the players were aware of this. Contact Information: print. 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". Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. Instead, a Return to Play tournament was organized, starting in August 2020. [11] The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. In addition, the contrasting shoulder yoke was removed. On June 17, 2005, the Lauries announced that they would sell the team. . However, St. Louis ended their first-round losing streak by beating Chicago 32 in game 7 of the series. After a strong second-half run, the Blues made the 2009 playoffs on April 10, 2009, after defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 31. However, injuries plagued the team all season, and the lack of a bona fide scorer hampered them as well. 0. [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. 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. 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. 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 Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. Things got worse after Keenan orchestrated a bold trade to acquire Wayne Gretzky late in the 1995-96 season. Chris Kerber and Joe Vitale are the current radio broadcast team. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com Photo by J.B. Forbes, staff photographer. The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. The game against Anaheim was suspended during the first period and postponed to March 11. Lynn Patrick initially served as general manager and head coach. The elder Salomon was not enthralled with the idea of owning a hockey team initially, but his son persuaded him to take the plunge. Other players like Patrik Berglund, and Alex Steen did not return in time for the season. Indeed, many of the Blues' players liked the fact that their families could hear the games on KMOX. [7] Emile Francis would call it quits on May 2, leaving for the Hartford Whalers to become president and general manager. While the disappointment of that series loss is still fresh, hope springs eternal with the announcement that a new ownership group is in place. 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". They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. 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. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. On November 3, 2007, the fans voted on his name on the Blues' web site. In 1985, Ornest, wanting more broadcast revenue, put the radio rights up for bid. 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. 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. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". 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. In 1981, Dean retired. In the offseason for the 201718 season, the Blues would lose David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights via an expansion draft. 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. St. Louis Blues - (NHL) Enterprise Center - Operations only, the City of St. Louis is the owner Stifel Theatre - Majority Owner Former assets [ edit] Peoria Rivermen - (AHL) Shareholders [ edit] [3] Majority Owner [ edit] Thomas H. Stillman - Chairman of the Board & CEO, Summit Distributing. [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. Bill Laurieis an American former basketball player and coach, and current business executive and philanthropist. Gretzky, whose wife is a native St. Louisan, personally approved the trade and was prepared to finish his illustrious career with the Blues. The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. However, he resigned as head coach in late November after recording a 4132 record. 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. The standard for other teams was 60 players. The moves kept. The Blues missed the playoffs during the first four full seasons of new ownership. 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. 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]. The team started the season by posting a record of 1012 in their first 13 home games. [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. "[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. While the Blues had returned to respectability on the ice, they were struggling off it. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. You have permission to edit this article. Berenson, who had played previously in Montreal and New York, commented: "In New York or Montreal, all you'd get would be a handshake.". ST. LOUIS (KTVI) - There's been talk that the Rams move is great news for the St. Louis Blues: freeing up more money for St. Louis sports fans to spend on hockey. Tom Stillman becomes the eighth owner in Blues franchise history. Nonetheless, the team remained competitive for the next three years, despite never advancing beyond the second round. Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. 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 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. 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. The Blues skated back to KPLR 3 years later. [33] For the 201819 season, the Blues added a third jersey based on the one worn during the 2017 NHL Winter Classic. By accident", "Pronger steps aside as captain; MacInnis steps in", "Blues retire Plager's No. 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. The following season, 201314, the team hit the 100-point mark for the sixth time in franchise history, and gained a franchise record of 52 wins. [21] On March 29, 2019, the Blues became the seventh team in NHL since the 196768 season to qualify for the playoffs after being placed last after January 1. It also replaced red with navy blue as an accent color. 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. It wasn't. 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. [13] Despite operating on a shoestring, the Blues remained competitive even though they never finished more than six games over .500 in Ornest's three years as owner. 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. post; account; . Trending. Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. 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. 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 has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Soon after, Ornest sold the Blues to a group led by Michael Shanahan, head of Engineered Support Systems Inc. However, as the season was put on pause due to the pandemic, no team would play the full 82 games. Blues games, many of which were crucial to playoff berths, would often be pre-empted for spring training coverage. St Louis Blues Players. After hockey resumed in 2005, a few months after GNR's final issue, a new publication, St. Louis Game Time, was formed by several former GNR staffers.[49]. This article is about the ice hockey team. The next few seasons became like a broken record. 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. 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 . Photo by Scott C. Dine/St. [27] The bill was signed into law by Mike Parson, the Governor of Missouri, with the revised statute becoming effective August 29, 2019. 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. 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). 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. After each goal, a bell is rung and each of the goals are counted by the crowd. 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. 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. [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. 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. Nonetheless, their on-ice success was enough for a consortium of 19 companies to buy the team. 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. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . Blues Jump Blues/Piano Blues St. Louis Blues. They play their home games at the 19,150-seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, which has been their arena since moving from St. Louis Arena in 1994. In the 1999-2000 season, Quenneville's club won 51 games and collected 114 points, capturing the first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history. Defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. 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.