"[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. On March 17, 2011, it was announced that the St. Louis Blues were for sale. Quenneville was fired during the 2003-04 season and like so many prominent Blues alumni before him Hull, Shanahan, Stevens, Pronger he went on to win a Cup elsewhere. During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. Like all NHL teams, the Blues updated their jerseys for the 200708 season with new Rbk Edge jerseys. [a] The Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League (AHL) is the team's minor league affiliate. In addition to Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn vs. SEA this past Tuesday, . In the offseason for the 201718 season, the Blues would lose David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights via an expansion draft. 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 slump haunted them, as they blew a 20 series lead to the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, losing the first-round series in six games. Soon after, Ornest sold the Blues to a group led by Michael Shanahan, head of Engineered Support Systems Inc. The Blues had remained in strong form throughout the season, finishing first in the Western Conference and second in the NHL. [15] The team later traded veteran defenseman Bryce Salvador to the New Jersey Devils for enforcer, and St. Louis native, Cam Janssen. However, longtime Ralston Purina chairman R. Hal Dean said that he only intended to keep the Blues as a Ralston subsidiary only temporarily until a more stable owner could be found who would keep the team in St. Louis. The Blues lost more players as Jay Bouwmeester suffered a season-ending injury, and Jaden Schwartz missed a large portion of the season. However, they never made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. While the Blues contended during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs. 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. In the midst of it, in 1999, the Clark Enterprises consortium of 19 St. Louis companies that owned the franchise sold it to Bill Laurie and his wife, Nancy, daughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Sam Walton. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. 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. [24] Up until that point, the Blues were the oldest franchise to never win the Stanley Cup; they were also the last of the five surviving 1967 expansion teams to win the Cup for the first time. These are the top-ten point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise regular-season history. Especially galling were the frequent blown leads after two periods, and with the worst home record (6133) posted in the entire NHL. However, the NHL Board of Governors rejected the deal by a 153 vote on May 18, feeling that Saskatoon was not big enough or financially stable enough to support an NHL team.[8][9]. [34] A corresponding vintage white version was unveiled for the 2022 NHL Winter Classic. On October 2, 2007, the Blues finalized the season-starting roster, which included rookies David Perron, Steven Wagner and Erik Johnson. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. Rivers also fills in on color commentary whenever Pang is on a national TV assignment for the NHL on TNT. 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. 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. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. The group spent $2 million to buy the franchise, $4 million to purchase the 38-year-old Arena on Oakland Avenue from Chicago's Bill Wirtz and $2.5 million more to renovate the building. Early in the morning of trade deadline day, the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings agreed to a deal. Berenson, who had played previously in Montreal and New York, commented: "In New York or Montreal, all you'd get would be a handshake.". In 19992000, the team notched a franchise-record 114 points during the regular season, earning the Presidents' Trophy for the League's best record. 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. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. The son of legendary Bobby Hull, the "Golden Brett" became the face of the franchise, with his magical name and sublime scoring touch. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian accent became famous, such as pronouncing owner Sid Salomon III "Sid the Turd" instead of "Third") joining as an analyst, simulcast on KMOX and KPLRcontinued through the 197576 season, then simulcast on KMOX and KDNL-TV for the next three seasons. A corresponding blue jersey was introduced the following season, thus retiring the previous set. 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 St. Louis Blues presently acknowledge an affiliation with a number of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame. 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. 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. But the roller coaster started to descend in the mid-1970s. 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". Blues Chairman Tom Stillman confirmed . 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 between seasons and during trade deadlines, the Blues became a must-see attraction. Defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. To this day, in terms of contention, the Salomon group remains the most successful of the Blues owners. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. However, St. Louis was swept in their first Finals appearance by the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens. Their regular-season success, however, did not transfer into the playoffs, as they were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the second round 24 after beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round 32. * current Blues player One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach. For the 199495 season, the Blues introduced a more radical jersey set, featuring red in a more prominent role. They treated the players to all-expenses-paid Florida vacations when seasons ended and bought them gold wristwatches for scoring hat tricks, etc. The emotional win two days earlier notwitstanding, the Blues lost Game 7 of the playoffs in Calgary, falling short of the Cup finals. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. 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 would continue their strong play even despite being plagued with various other injuries, consistently remaining at or near the top of the Western Conference. Blues games, many of which were crucial to playoff berths, would often be pre-empted for spring training coverage. Movies. tickets - by owner. "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. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. san jose sharks vs . By accident", "Pronger steps aside as captain; MacInnis steps in", "Blues retire Plager's No. Attendance had gone from a peak of 18,601 a game in 1972-73 to 10,130. 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. The current logo (shown in the infobox), is similar, but with the slightly darker shade of blue used since 1984. 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. Former Blues forward David Perron was brought back on a free agent deal, while defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was named team captain. The Blues were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, in the following round. Hull, who had a lengthy feud with Keenan, left for the Dallas Stars in 1998. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they make plans to put together a musical revue. Photo by UPI, St. Louis Blues chairman Mike Shanahan at a game in January of 1987, agonizing from the owner's box. Jeremy Rutherford is the lead Blues beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In each instance, the Blues were swept in four games, twice by the Montreal Canadiens and lastly by the Boston Bruins. Follow Jeremy P. Rutherford 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem", "PLAY GLORIA! 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. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1967 to 1984. He was introduced on October 10, 2007. 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. Ten players reached at least 20 goals, including Wayne Babych, future Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, and team captain Brian Sutter. 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. After the 200405 lockout, the Blues' attendance suffered, but has since improved every year since its all-time low in 200607. The Blues got off to a slow start in their initial season. 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. The seats are in section 106 row cc seats 1-4. On January 12, 1983, Batoni-Hunter Enterprises Ltd., led by WHA and Edmonton Oilers founder Bill Hunter, tendered an offer to buy the team. Defenseman Chris Pronger (acquired from the Hartford Whalers in 1995 for Brendan Shanahan), Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis and goaltender Roman Turek kept the Blues a contender in the NHL. Minority owner Wolfson and Blues president Emile Francis persuaded Ralston Purina executive R. Hal Dean to invest in the franchise. 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. 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. 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. [11] The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. 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. In each of its first three seasons, the team advanced through the expansion side of the NHL playoff bracket to the Stanley Cup finals. Attendance plummeted, from 18,560 a game in 2003-04 to 12,520 in 2006-07. During the late 1990s, the Blues nurtured a new identity. The Enterprise Center was electric and buzzing with excitement with anticipation of the win. You have permission to edit this article. Despite years of mediocrity and the stigma of never being able to "take the next step," the Blues were a playoff presence every year from 1980 to 2004 the third-longest streak in North American professional sports history (all three of which being held by NHL teams). 27 febrero, 2023 . He is the former owner of the St. Louis Bluesand is the co-chairman of Paige Sports Entertainment. 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. Brad Boyes, picked up from the Boston Bruins in exchange for Wideman, became the fastest Blues player to reach 40 goals since Brett Hull, doing so during the 200708 season. 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. [41] However, during the 2019 playoffs, Laura Branigan's "Gloria" was played first before The Urge song. St. Louis has a record of 2-3 in games when bookmakers list them +180 or longer on the moneyline. Although perennial postseason contenders for most of their history, the franchise frequently struggled in the playoffs, including consecutive Stanley Cup Finals defeats at the end of their first three seasons. In 201516, the Blues finished in second place in the Central Division to the Dallas Stars. 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. 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. Since 1990, Ron Baechle, also known as the "Towel Man" or "Towel Guy," has celebrated each goal by counting with the bell and throwing a towel into the crowd from section 314. In the hiatus preceding the NHL's Return to Play, several Blues players contracted COVID-19, which was cited by the coaching staff as one of the reasons why their play faltered in the playoffs. The uniforms, which had the team name written around the primitive "blue note" logo along with contrasting stripes, had a gold base.[37]. During the 2012 playoffs, they won their first playoff series since 2002, eliminating the San Jose Sharks in five games. 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. During this time, from 1989 to 2000, more games began to be aired on Prime Sports Midwest, the forerunner to today's Bally Sports Midwest. 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. On July 27, 1983, ten days before the deadline, the NHL approved a bid from businessman Harry Ornest and a group of St. Louis-based investors for the team and the arena. This setupKelly as commentator, with either Kyle, Bob Plager, or Noel Picard (whose heavy French-Canadian . On December 11, 2006, the Blues fired head coach Mike Kitchen and replaced him with former Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray. The Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and have the most Stanley Cup playoff appearances outside of the Original Six. They waited for an authorization by 75% of the NHL Board of Governors for the sale and transfer of the club. List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end of the season . For the song, see. 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. As general manager and coach, Keenan traded away the popular Brendan Shanahan, tested patience with other curious transactions and cultivated a toxic relationship with Hull. Other players like Patrik Berglund, and Alex Steen did not return in time for the season. The Blues also won the Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals (165) in the NHL, as netminder Roman Turek finished with a 1.95 goals-against average. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. [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. The navy blue third jersey was kept without any alterations, before it was retired prior the 201617 season. Hockey-crazy Stillman is the latest to try his luck where so many others have failed. 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. MLS in July 2020 pushed the expansion schedule back by a year for both St. Louis and the Charlotte, North Carolina, team that began play last year, saying the Covid-19 pandemic had led to delays . The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. St. Louis kept chugging along through the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. 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. Eventually, the St. Louis Arena came under the control of the owners of the Chicago Black Hawks. 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. This led to a Norris Division semi-finals exit against the Chicago Black Hawks. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. In 2001, the Blues advanced to the Western Conference Finals before bowing out in five games to the eventual champions, the Colorado Avalanche. Nevertheless, the Black Hawks owners still owned the St. Louis Arena. 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 next few seasons became like a broken record. 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 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. Steve Ott also left the team, signing a free-agent deal with the Red Wings. The St. Louis Blues are one of the more successful NHL teams in terms of attendance. Wal-Mart heir Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill purchased the Blues in 1999. Under new management, the Blues promptly installed John Davidson as president of hockey operations, moving Pleau to a mostly advisory role. Payne was previously the head coach of the Blues top minor league affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League (AHL).[16]. Dean retired and his successor, William Stiritz, had no interest in continuing the involvement in hockey. Incensed, Ralston Purina sued the NHL, padlocked the Checkerdome and abandoned the franchise, leaving a mess for the league to sort out. The Blues have a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom they have shared a division since 1970. Last chance! The Blues joined the league in 1967, one of six expansion teams that doubled the size of the NHL from six to 12. With his aging father stepping back, Sid Salomon III took a more prominent role in running the franchise and upheaval became the order of the day. Ralston renamed the arena the "Checkerdome." Jake Allen was now the starting goaltender for the Blues, while the team also signed former Nashville Predators backup Carter Hutton. The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. 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. As the Blues faced the Oilers on December 7, 1982; brochures were distributed saying "Saskatchewan in the NHL". 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. Declining revenue reached a critical stage by the end of the 1976-77 season, and the Blues reduced their management staff to three. 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. This article is about the ice hockey team. Hull, nicknamed the "Golden Brett" (a reference to his father, NHL legend Bobby Hull, who was nicknamed the "Golden Jet"), became one of the League's top stars and a scoring sensation, netting 86 goals in 199091 en route to earning the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. [41], At the end of the national anthem before every home game, the words "the home of the brave" are drowned out by fans with "the home of the Blues. Blues Jump Blues/Piano Blues St. Louis Blues. Only Wayne Gretzky found the net more than Hull during any given three-year period. The initial results were not good. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 197374, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. The Blues chairman/owner . Following the disappointing 200506 season, which saw the Blues with the worst record in the NHL, the new management focused on rebuilding the franchise. [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. 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. KXOK backed out of the contract after just 2 years, and the Blues immediately went back to KMOX, who held the rights until 2000. 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? Nonetheless, their on-ice success was enough for a consortium of 19 companies to buy the team. 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. Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. 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 Blues fired head coach Andy Murray on January 2, 2010, after a disappointing record (17176, 40 points), sitting in 12th place in the Conference. Additionally, fans complained they could not hear the station at night (it had to readjust its coverage due to a glut of clear channels on adjacent frequencies). After two awful years, including what is still a franchise-worst 185012 record with 48 points in 1979, the Blues made the playoffs the following year, the first of 25 consecutive postseason appearances. That included Federko, Gassoff, Hull, MacInnis, Bob and Barclay Plager, Pronger and Sutter, along with Kelly, the Blues' legendary broadcaster. By 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference Finals against the Flames. The Blues averaged more than 41 wins but could not get though the conference playoffs. 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. The jersey introduced the short-lived trumpet logo on the shoulders and featured thin diagonal stripes on the tail and sleeves. Jeremy Rutherford is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the St. Louis Blues. On February 12, 2020, the Blues suffered another loss as defenseman Jay Bouwmeester suddenly collapsed on the bench in a game against the Anaheim Ducks, and would not come back to play again in the season. 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. They captured the Jennings Trophy once more for allowing the fewest goals in the league (165). Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. Contact Information: print. Indeed, many of the Blues' players liked the fact that their families could hear the games on KMOX. While there were a number of interested parties, none had enough cash to meet Ralston's asking price. 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. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. The Blues' successes in the late 1960s, however, did not continue into the 1970s. They faced the third-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the first round, but despite the team's tremendous run to end the season, the Blues would ultimately lose the series in a quick four-game sweep. Pronger, Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger were all sent packing. However, Dean took the losses philosophically, having taken over out of a sense of civic responsibility. 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. Bill Laurieis an American former basketball player and coach, and current business executive and philanthropist. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. On September 2, 2020, the Blues traded goaltender Jake Allen, who had spent ten years in the Blues organization, to the Montreal Canadiens.[29]. 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. 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. Menu. The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the . The NHL Board of Governors has approved the sale of the St. Louis Blues to a group headed. The Blues became the first team in NHL history to finish first overall in the standings and lose in the first round of the playoffs. In 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference finals and produced one of its signature moments, a "Monday Night Miracle" comeback victory in Game 6. The team started the season by posting a record of 1012 in their first 13 home games. "[50][51] And it did take them to the Stanley Cup. That was the highlight of the Ornest years; the bottom fell out soon after. Buck elected to leave the booth after one season, though, and was replaced by another famed announcer in Dan Kelly. During most of Ornest's tenure, the Blues had only 26 players under contract23 in St. Louis, plus three on their farm team, the Montana Magic. The Salomons sold the Blues to Ralston on July 27, 1977. On June 13, 2016, it was announced that Mike Yeo would replace Hitchcock as head coach of the Blues following the 201617 season. [55] The seven individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former Blues executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. Among the first things Ornest did during his three-year tenure was change the name of the building back to the "Arena."