However, they were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2000 playoffs in seven games. 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. Blues owners. 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". The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. They waited for an authorization by 75% of the NHL Board of Governors for the sale and transfer of the club. [13] After that season, Ornest sold the team to a group led by St. Louis businessman Michael Shanahan. Originally, the St. Louis Blues aired their games on KPLR-TV and KMOX radio, with team patron Gus Kyle calling games alongside St Louis broadcasting legend Jack Buck. "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. [30] In 201011, the team sold out every home game. The Blues were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, in the following round. Declining revenue reached a critical stage by the end of the 1976-77 season, and the Blues reduced their management staff to three. Overview. Despite an impressive run into the end of the season, when they gained most points in the league from February 1, when Hitchcock was fired, to the end of the season,[18] the Blues were eliminated in the second round by the Nashville Predators in six games.[19]. On October 2, 2007, the Blues finalized the season-starting roster, which included rookies David Perron, Steven Wagner and Erik Johnson. 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. For the 199495 season, the Blues introduced a more radical jersey set, featuring red in a more prominent role. Originally, the Blues aired their games on KPLR-TV and KMOX radio, with team patron Gus Kyle calling games alongside St Louis broadcasting legend Jack Buck. 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. Audience capacity was increased from 12,000 to 15,000 at the Arena, which had been home to the Central Hockey League's St. Louis Braves. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. Figures are updated after each completed NHL season. The navy blue third jersey was kept without any alterations, before it was retired prior the 201617 season. [33] For the 201819 season, the Blues added a third jersey based on the one worn during the 2017 NHL Winter Classic. [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. 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. However, they only won three games on the road during the first two months of the season. Weight was again traded in December 2007 to the Anaheim Ducks, along with a minor league player, in exchange for Andy McDonald. 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. [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. 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. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 197374, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. However, after the period of exclusivity, SCP entered the picture again. Why A Stanley Cup Would Mean Big Money For St. Louis Blues Owner Tom SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC - Wikipedia Blues' ownership: A colorful history - STLtoday.com Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. At the beginning of the 200607 season, the Blues looked to be competitive in the Central Division. The Blues missed the playoffs during the first four full seasons of new ownership. On December 11, 2006, the Blues fired head coach Mike Kitchen and replaced him with former Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray. "[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. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. Meet the Thunderbirds | NHL.com [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. Checks were back in the Checkerdome. In 1978-79, the Blues won 18 of 80 games, or just one more than the NFL's 1972 Miami Dophins. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. Off the ice, the cash-poor Checketts operated with an Ornest-like budget; on the ice the team continued to stockpile picks and promise. In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . Ralston Purina lost an estimated $1.8 million a year during its six-year ownership of the Blues. KSDK history: Mike Bush, Art Holliday start traditions | ksdk.com - FOX61 Hull, who had a lengthy feud with Keenan, left for the Dallas Stars in 1998. St Louis Blues Players. In the end, when the legal dodgeball and financial haggling between the league and Ralston Purina settled, when the budget squeezing and penny-pinching was complete, Ornest came out the big winner. 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 J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com Photo by J.B. Forbes, staff photographer. He is the former owner of the St. Louis Bluesand is the co-chairman of Paige Sports Entertainment. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they make plans to put together a musical revue. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/St. Buck elected to leave the booth after one season, though, and was replaced by another famed announcer in Dan Kelly. 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. Original Blues owner fondly remembers the early days - STLtoday.com A look at the ownership lineage: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. But with former Blues goaltender and nationally renowned broadcaster John Davidson at the point, they turned the worm. [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. 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. He saw the Blues as just another money-bleeding division, and put the team on the market. 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. The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. In response, the Blues moved back to KMOX starting in the 200607 season. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1987 to 1998. The team did not even participate in the 1983 NHL draft, forfeiting all of its picks. The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. From 1979 to 1981, the radio and television broadcasts were separated for the first time since the inaugural season, with Kelly doing the radio broadcasts and Eli Gold hired to do the television. [55] Dan Kelly, the Blues' radio play-by-play announcer, was awarded the first Blues broadcaster to receive the award in 1989. They would also pick up Brayden Schenn from the Philadelphia Flyers by giving away Jori Lehtera. Ten players reached at least 20 goals, including Wayne Babych, future Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, and team captain Brian Sutter. QR Code Link to This Post. While the Blues contended during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs. He asked many players to defer contracts to help meet operating costs and through much of Ornest's tenure, the team operated with a small office staff. One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach. Ornest immediately reverted the name of the team's home venue to the St. Louis Arena. 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. Mike Keenan was hired as both general manager and coach before the abbreviated 199495 season, with the hope that he could end the postseason turmoil that Blues fans had endured for years. 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. 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. st louis blues - $75 (Saint Louis) wednesday 2023-03-01. number available: 4 venue: enterprise center. By accident", "Pronger steps aside as captain; MacInnis steps in", "Blues retire Plager's No. Rivers also fills in on color commentary whenever Pang is on a national TV assignment for the NHL on TNT. However, the station was never financially competitive in the market. Early life[edit] Laurie grew up in rural Missouri. [34] A corresponding vintage white version was unveiled for the 2022 NHL Winter Classic. Amid several questionable personnel moves and an unstable ownership situation, the Blues finished the 200506 season with their worst record in 27 years. KMOX is a 50,000-watt clear-channel station that reaches almost all of North America at night, allowing Kelly to become a celebrity in both the United States and Canada. The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the . Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. KXOK backed out of the contract after just 2 years, and the Blues immediately went back to KMOX, who held the rights until 2000. In 200910, despite not having a playoff year, the Blues had an average attendance of 18,883 (98.6% total capacity), selling out 34 of its 40 home games, which placed them seventh in the NHL in attendance. On March 24, 2006, the Lauries completed the sale of the Blues and the lease to the Savvis Center to SCP and TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P., a private equity firm. [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. ST. LOUIS (AP) Mike Shanahan, who owned the St. Louis Blues from 1986-91 and oversaw the acquisition of Hall of Famer Brett Hull, has died. 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. The NHL also said that Ralston broke a league rule that an owner had to give two years' notice before dissolving a franchise. 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. An NHL lockout canceled the 2004-05 season and the Lauries put the team up for sale in June 2005, citing losses of more than $60 million over the previous two years. [a] The Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League (AHL) is the team's minor league affiliate. 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 451817 record which translated to 107 points and the second-best record in the league. In 1981, Dean retired. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. Baie-Comeau Drakkar Players Bakersfield Condors Players Barrie Colts Players Barys Astana Players Belarusian Hockey Players Belleville Senators Players Bemidji State Beavers Players Bentley Falcons. On June 17, 2005, the Lauries announced that they would sell the team. 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. Reluctant to give up on the St. Louis market, the NHL blocked the sale. Despite posting the second-best regular-season record in the entire league in 199091, the Blues were upset in the second round of the playoffs to the Minnesota North Stars, a defeat that was symbolic of St. Louis' playoff struggles. 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. The Blues remain 0-12 in Stanley Cup finals play. The moves kept. 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 Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena." The Enterprise Center was electric and buzzing with excitement with anticipation of the win. 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. The St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history later that season. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. san jose sharks vs . st louis blues - tickets - by owner - event sale The Blues, who have never won the Cup, are marginally profitable during the. (Jeremy Rutherford photo / Post-Dispatch) Jeremy P. Rutherford , Tom . Ornest had made plans to buy the team as early as March, but built up his efforts in late June to have enough money. During this period, the NHL rebuffed attempts at further expansion. 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. The team finished last in the division and disbanded after one season. In addition, the contrasting shoulder yoke was removed. 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. For the first time in five years (that is, since the lockout), the Blues were in the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. On November 3, 2007, the fans voted on his name on the Blues' web site. Gretzky, whose wife is a native St. Louisan, personally approved the trade and was prepared to finish his illustrious career with the Blues. List of St. Louis Blues broadcasters | NHL Wiki | Fandom Louie is the mascot of the St. Louis Blues. The Blues took on the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in the first-round series. In 1984, the Blues drastically redesigned their look, adding red and darkening the shade of blue. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. New owners take over Blues - STLtoday.com 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. NHL Board of Governors OKs sale of St. Louis Blues Attendance went from 8,897 in 1967-68 to 18,238 in 1970-71. [25] This all but assured that Berube would have the "interim" tag removed from his title, which occurred two weeks after their Cup victory. Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. Category:St. Louis Blues owners - Wikipedia On February 9, 2019, another tradition was born. 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. 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. The St Louis Blues: A History Of The Hockey Team 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. St. Louis Blues: Directed by Raoul Walsh. 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. [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. Dan Kelly continued to broadcast the games on radio but was diagnosed in the summer of 1988 with lung cancer and died on February 10, 1989. 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. Here is a list of the team's owners since its inception: -Sidney Salomon Jr. -Ralph Sauer -Harry Ornest -Michael Shanahan -Dave Checketts -Tom Stillman.