St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. 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 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.
The Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and have the most Stanley Cup playoff appearances outside of the Original Six. Although frequent postseason contenders for most of their history, the franchise has usually struggled in the playoffs, including consecutive Stanley Cup Final defeats at the end of their first three seasons. With the Blues' victory in their fourth Stanley Cup Final, 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.
The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. The Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League and the Florida Everblades of the ECHL are the team's minor league affiliates.
History
Hockey in St. Louis before 1967
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. After an ice plant was installed, the minor league St. Louis Flyers began play there in 1929. St. Louis soon began to attract the interest as a potential NHL market, eventually leading the owners of the moribund Ottawa Senators to move there for the 1934–35 season. The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. 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 in an age where long round-trip train travel was required. The team finished last in the division and disbanded after one season.Following further contraction, the league stabilized at six teams after 1942. During this period, the NHL rebuffed attempts at further expansion. Eventually, the St. Louis Arena came under the control of the owners of the Chicago Black Hawks. 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 1950s while the team still struggled to sell tickets at Chicago Stadium.
1967 expansion
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. 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. 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. Nevertheless, the Black Hawks owners still owned the St. Louis Arena. 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. The Black Hawks owners felt they could establish a "lovable loser" and a reliable regional rivalry, akin to that of baseball's Cardinals and Cubs. Despite this, NHL president Clarence Campbell said during the 1967 expansion meetings, "We want a team in St. Louis because of the city's geographical location and the fact that it has an adequate building."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. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. Former St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial and Musial's business partner Julius "Biggie" Garagnani were also members of the 16-man investment group that made the initial formal application for the franchise. 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. 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.
Beginnings and Stanley Cup Final appearances (1967–1970)
initially served as general manager and head coach. However, he resigned as head coach in late November after recording a 4–13–2 record. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. 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. As part of the expansion, the NHL had agreed to put all of the expansion teams in the new West Division, an arrangement which was intended to ensure all of the new teams all had an equal chance of reaching the playoffs.Under the expansion playoff format, Bowman's leadership was enough as the Blues qualified for the playoffs in their inaugural season. 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. 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 Final. However, St. Louis was swept in their first Cup Final appearance by the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens.
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. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Final by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970.
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. 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. The arena quickly became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues' home.
During that time, Salomon gained a reputation throughout the NHL as the top players' owner. He gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. 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.
Financial problems, near-move, and playoff streak (1970–1987)
The Blues' successes in the late 1960s, however, did not continue into the 1970s. The format of the Stanley Cup playoffs changed in such a way that a Western team was no longer guaranteed a Stanley Cup Final berth, and also the Chicago Black Hawks were moved into the West Division before the 1970–71 season due to NHL expansion. The Blues lost Bowman, who left during the 1970–71 season following a power-sharing dispute with Sid Salomon III, as well as Hall, Plante, Goyette and ultimately Berenson, who were all lost to retirement or trade. Veteran player Al Arbour hastily stepped in to coach the team. Under Arbour, the Blues essentially matched their 1969–70 regular season performance in their fourth season, and were still the best of the expansion teams; however, it was only good enough for second place in the West as St. Louis finished 20 points behind Chicago. The Blues would go on to be upset by the North Stars in six games, thus failing to advance past the first round for the first time in franchise history.Arbour, who officially retired as a player after the 1970–71 season, would remain behind the Blues' bench for the next two seasons. 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. Defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 1973–74, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. This division was particularly weak, and in 1976–77, the Blues won it while finishing five games below.500, though this would be their last playoff appearance in the decade.
In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse. This was partly due to the pressures of the World Hockey Association, but mostly the result of financial decisions made when the Salomons first acquired the franchise. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach. In hopes of saving the franchise, Francis persuaded St. Louis-based pet food giant Ralston Purina to buy the team, arena, and the $8.8 million debt. The Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. Longtime Ralston Purina chairman R. Hal Dean said that he intended to keep the Blues as a subsidiary only temporarily until a more stable owner could be found, but he would only accept offers from interests who would keep the team in St. Louis. Ralston renamed the arena the "Checkerdome." After two awful years, including what is still a franchise-worst 18–50–12 record with 48 points in 1979, the Blues made the playoffs the following year, the first of 25 consecutive postseason appearances.
After being one of the worst teams a couple of years before, they were one of the best in 1981, as they finished with a then-franchise-best record of 45–18–17 record which translated to 107 points and the second-best record in the league. Ten players reached at least 20 goals, including Wayne Babych, future Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, and team captain Brian Sutter. 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. Their regular season success, however, did not transfer into the playoffs, as they were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the second round 2–4 after beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round 3–2. The Blues would underachieve greatly the following year as they posted a 32–40–8, but they beat the Winnipeg Jets 3–1 in the Norris Division semifinals before dropping to the Chicago Black Hawks in the Norris Division 2–4.
While the Blues had returned to respectability on the ice, they were struggling off it. Ralston Purina lost an estimated $1.8 million a year during its six-year ownership of the Blues. However, Dean took the losses philosophically, having taken over out of a sense of civic responsibility. In 1981, Dean retired. His successor, William Stiritz, wanted to refocus on the core pet food business, and his personal sporting interests were in horse racing rather than hockey. He saw the Blues as just another money-bleeding division, and put the team on the market. While there were a number of interested parties, none had enough cash to meet Ralston's asking price. On January 12, 1983, Batoni-Hunter Enterprises Ltd., led by WHA and Edmonton Oilers founder Bill Hunter, tendered an offer to buy the team. Hunter intended to build a $43 million, 18,000-seat arena in his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to house the team in time for the 1983–84 season. While the fans were stunned, the players were aware of Hunter's bid. When the Blues faced the Oilers on December 7, 1982, brochures were distributed titled "Saskatchewan in the NHL". These distractions would greatly affect their performance as they squeezed into the playoffs with a 25–40–15 record in the 1983 season, good enough for 65 points. This led to a Norris Division semifinals exit against the Chicago Black Hawks. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's company, renamed Coliseum Holdings, Ltd., for $12 million on April 21. Emile Francis would call it quits on May 2, leaving to become president and general manager of the Hartford Whalers. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. The only remaining staff included the accounting department, scouting staff, and coach Barclay Plager. They waited for an authorization by 75% of the NHL Board of Governors for the sale and transfer of the club. However, the NHL Board of Governors rejected the deal by a 15–3 vote on May 18. The owners did not believe that Saskatoon was big enough to support an NHL team, and were also wary of Hunter's involvement based on his roles in the WHA.
Ralston then filed a $60 million anti-trust lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming that the NHL broke federal antitrust laws and breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing by voting to reject the sale and transfer of the Blues to Hunter's group. They also requested that the court allow them to give up the team and bar the NHL from interfering with the sale of the team. On June 3, Ralston announced that it had no interest in running the Blues. 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. The day after the draft, the NHL filed a $78 million counter-suit against Ralston, accusing Ralston of "damaging the league by willfully, wantonly and maliciously collapsing its St. Louis Blues hockey operation." The NHL also said that Ralston broke a league rule that an owner had to give two years' notice before dissolving a franchise. Ralston called the counter-suit "ridiculous" and gave the NHL an ultimatum: if the NHL did not accept Hunter's offer by June 14, Ralston would dissolve the team and sell its players and assets to other teams. The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. It then took control of the franchise and began searching for a new owner. League president John Ziegler said they would try to keep the team in St. Louis. However, had the league not found a new owner by August 6, it would dissolve the team and hold a dispersal draft for the players. On July 27, 1983, ten days before the deadline, the NHL approved a bid from a group of St. Louis investors led by businessman Harry Ornest for the team and the arena. Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. Ornest immediately reverted the name of the team's home venue to the St. Louis Arena. 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 1977–78 season.
Ornest ran the Blues very cheaply, though the players did not mind. 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. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. During most of Ornest's tenure, the Blues had only 26 players under contract–23 in St. Louis, plus three on their farm team, the Montana Magic. Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. 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. During this time, Doug Gilmour, drafted by St. Louis in 1982, emerged as a star.
While the Blues remained competitive, they were unable to keep many of their young players. 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. 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. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. By 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference finals against the Flames. Doug Wickenheiser's overtime goal in game 6 to cap a furious comeback remains one of the greatest moments in team history, but the Blues lost game 7, 2–1. Years later, Sutter argued that had the Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Final, they would have likely beaten the Canadiens, having won two out of three games against the Habs in the regular season. After that season, Ornest sold the team to a group led by St. Louis businessman Michael Shanahan.