50 Fun Facts About St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues are named after a song by which composer?

W. C. Handy said his 1914 song grew out of a chance meeting on the streets of St. Louis with a woman grieving over her absent husband, whose lament became one of its key lines.

The original Ottawa Senators moved to St. Louis in 1934 and played one money-losing NHL season under what name?

St. Louis Eagles were left in the NHL's Canadian Division to keep the divisions balanced, so costly rail trips to their Canadian rivals sank them after a single last-place season.

Which city lost out to St. Louis for the last 1967 expansion slot at the insistence of Chicago's owners?

Baltimore had applied and St. Louis had not, but the Black Hawks' owners also owned the run-down St. Louis Arena and pressed the league to put a team there so they could sell it.

Which American power forward, a Blue for most of the 2000s, scored his 500th NHL goal in 2008?

Keith Tkachuk got it on the final day of the season, into an empty Columbus net, to become the 41st player to reach 500.

Which assistant took over as Blues coach in November 1967 after Lynn Patrick resigned?

Scotty Bowman took the expansion Blues to the Cup Final in each of his first three seasons, left in 1971 after a dispute with the owners, and went on to win a record nine Stanley Cups as a head coach.

Whom did the Blues face in the Stanley Cup Final in both 1968 and 1969?

Montreal Canadiens swept both series: the playoff format guaranteed one of the new expansion teams a place in the Final, and the Blues lost all 12 Final games they played from 1968 to 1970.

Which veteran goaltending tandem won the 1969 Vezina Trophy for St. Louis?

Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante were 37 and 40 that season, and Plante had been retired since 1965 when the expansion Blues persuaded him to come back.

Which center, acquired for Red Berenson, scored 30 goals in eight straight seasons and set the iron-man record?

Garry Unger played 914 straight NHL games from 1968 to 1979, a record at the time, and the streak ended only when his coach in Atlanta kept him on the bench for a whole game.

Which St. Louis company bought the debt-ridden Blues and their arena in 1977?

Ralston Purina stepped in to keep the team in St. Louis, but by 1983 it wanted to cut its losses and agreed to sell to a group that planned to move the Blues to Saskatoon.

From 1977 to 1983 the St. Louis Arena carried which name?

The Checkerdome took its name from its owner's checkerboard logo, and the old name came back when the team and the arena were sold in 1983.

Which WHA founder tried to buy the Blues in 1983 and move them to Saskatoon?

Bill Hunter had agreed a price and planned a new arena in his home city, but the NHL's governors refused to approve the move, and the Blues stayed in St. Louis under a new owner.

The Blues are the only team ever to skip an NHL draft; which future Hall of Famer went fourth overall that year?

Steve Yzerman was chosen while the Blues' table sat empty: their owner, at odds with the league over a blocked sale, sent nobody and the team forfeited every pick.

Which former NHL linesman bought the Blues in 1983 and kept them from folding?

Harry Ornest, living in California, stepped in after the league had blocked a move to Saskatoon and the previous owner had handed the team back.

Whose overtime goal for the Blues in Game 6 of the 1986 conference finals capped the 'Monday Night Miracle'?

Doug Wickenheiser scored 7:30 into overtime after the Blues had trailed 5-2 with about 12 minutes left in regulation, forcing a seventh game that they lost by a single goal.

Whom did the Blues send to Calgary in March 1988 for Brett Hull and Steve Bozek?

Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley helped Calgary win the Stanley Cup a year later, but St. Louis did better in the long run: Hull scored 527 goals as a Blue.

Which center set up Brett Hull's 86-goal season in 1990-91 with 90 assists?

Adam Oates fed Hull for two and a half seasons; after the Blues traded him away in February 1992, Hull never scored 60 goals in a later season.

Which university did Brett Hull play for, scoring 52 goals in 1985-86?

Minnesota-Duluth offered Hull a scholarship after two NHL drafts had passed him over, and his 52 goals that season broke the school record of 49.

Which two veteran stars did Mike Keenan bring to the Blues during 1995-96?

Wayne Gretzky and Grant Fuhr had won four Stanley Cups together in Edmonton, but the reunion was brief: Gretzky played 31 games for St. Louis, playoffs included, then signed with the Rangers.

Which defenseman came to the Blues from Hartford in 1995 in exchange for Brendan Shanahan?

Chris Pronger was 20 when he arrived, and five years later he became the first defenseman in 28 years to be named the league's most valuable player.

Which team stunned the Presidents' Trophy-winning Blues in the first round of the 2000 playoffs?

San Jose Sharks were the eighth seed, and in Game 7 Owen Nolan beat Roman Turek from just past center ice with 10 seconds left in the first period to put them two goals up.

Which team later matched the Blues' run of 25 straight playoff seasons?

Detroit Red Wings equalled the mark with a streak from 1991 to 2016 that brought four Stanley Cups, whereas the Blues' own run, from 1980 to 2004, never once reached the Final.

In 1999 Blues owner Bill Laurie agreed to buy which NBA team, planning to move it to St. Louis?

Vancouver Grizzlies were sold to Laurie for a reported $200 million, but the NBA stopped the move and he dropped the bid in January 2000; the team went to Memphis the following year.

Which former Rangers goalie became Blues president of hockey operations in 2006?

John Davidson had been the Blues' own first-round draft pick as a goalie in 1973, and he came back 33 years later after a long second career as a television analyst.

Which coach, hired in November 2011, took the Blues to their first 100-point season in years?

Ken Hitchcock took over a team that had started 6-7-0, went 43-15-11 the rest of the way for 109 points, and won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

Which team swept the Blues in the 2012 second round and beat them again in 2013?

Los Angeles Kings swept the Blues on the way to the 2012 Stanley Cup, and a year later St. Louis won the first two games of the rematch only to lose the next four.

Whom did the Blues receive from Washington in 2015 for T. J. Oshie?

Troy Brouwer arrived with goalie Pheonix Copley and a third-round pick, stayed one season and scored the goal that won a first-round Game 7 against a former team of his.

Which defending champion did the Blues finally beat in Game 7 in 2016 to end a first-round losing streak?

Chicago Blackhawks had knocked the Blues out two years earlier; this time St. Louis took Game 7 by a single goal and went on to its first conference final in 15 years.

Which forward came from Buffalo in the 2018 offseason and won the 2019 Conn Smythe Trophy?

Ryan O'Reilly scored in each of the last four games of the Final, the first player to do that in 34 years, and finished with a franchise-record 23 playoff points.

Which interim coach replaced Mike Yeo in November 2018 and won the Cup that June?

Craig Berube, an enforcer with 3,149 penalty minutes in his playing days, kept the 'interim' label through the whole Cup run and was given the job outright two weeks later.

Which rookie goalie's emergence powered the Blues' 2019 run from last place in early January to the Cup?

Jordan Binnington shut out Philadelphia in his first NHL start on January 7 and went on to win all 16 playoff games needed for the Cup, a record for a rookie goalie.

Whom did the Blues beat in seven games to win the 2019 Stanley Cup?

Boston Bruins lost Game 7 on their own ice, 4-1; the Blues' overtime win in Game 2 had been the franchise's first victory in a Final after 13 straight defeats.

Which 1982 pop hit became the Blues' victory anthem during their 2019 Stanley Cup run?

Gloria won over a few players in a Philadelphia bar in January 2019, where one patron watching an NFL playoff game kept telling the DJ to play it again; they adopted it and the team soon won 11 straight.

What nickname is given to the Blues' crest, a winged musical symbol worn since their first season in 1967?

The Blue Note nearly made its debut ringed by the team's name: that 1966 prototype was worn only by the owners, then came back as a 'Reverse Retro' uniform in 2022.

Which defenseman collapsed on the Blues bench during a February 2020 game in Anaheim?

Jay Bouwmeester went into cardiac arrest with the score 1-1; the game was abandoned and replayed a month later, and he was fitted with a defibrillator and never played in the NHL again.

Which is a former name of the Blues' arena that opened in 1994?

Kiel Center took its name from the Kiel Auditorium it replaced, a hall named for a former St. Louis mayor; naming deals have since made it the Savvis, Scottrade and Enterprise Center.

A 2025 Blues alternate logo turns the Gateway Arch into which instrument?

A trumpet, formed by the Arch and its mirror image in the Mississippi, was drawn as a tribute to the historic music scene of downtown St. Louis.

What kind of animal is Louie, the Blues mascot introduced in 2007?

A blue polar bear made his debut in October 2007 without a name, and fans picked 'Louie' in a vote on the team's website the following month.

Which item did superfan Ron Baechle, a fixture at Blues games from 1990, throw into the crowd after every home goal?

A towel flew into the seats once he had counted out the goals with the crowd, a routine that made the 'Towel Man' a St. Louis celebrity in his own right.

Which organ tune follows every Blues goal, with fans swapping in the team name?

When the Saints Go Marching In becomes 'When the Blues Go Marching In' in the stands, an organ standard the team was still playing in 2010, when recorded goal songs had become commonplace elsewhere.

The Blues won 4-1 before 46,556 fans at Busch Stadium in January 2017 in which annual NHL outdoor game?

The Winter Classic came to a ballpark because Busch Stadium was the city's only outdoor venue big enough, and two third-period goals broke a 1-1 tie.

Whose airborne overtime goal against the Blues in 1970 became one of hockey's most famous photographs?

Bobby Orr, tripped by Blues defenseman Noel Picard as he scored, was caught flying through the air with his arms raised; the goal, 40 seconds into overtime, won the Stanley Cup.

Which St. Louis broadcasting legend called the Blues' first season before handing over to Dan Kelly?

Jack Buck, far better known as the voice of baseball's Cardinals, was the Blues' first play-by-play man and called the 1968 Stanley Cup Final for KMOX radio.

Which Russian winger, drafted 16th in 2010 with a pick acquired from Ottawa, scored 262 goals for the Blues?

Vladimir Tarasenko cost the Blues one defense prospect, David Rundblad, in a draft-day trade; only four players have scored more goals for the club, and he helped win the 2019 Cup.

Which Blues defenseman won the All-Star hardest-shot contest seven times and the Norris Trophy in 1999?

Al MacInnis kept winning the hardest-shot event with a wooden stick after his rivals had switched to carbon fiber, at times topping 100 miles an hour.

Which Blues goalie finished second in the 1981 Hart Trophy vote, behind only the league's scoring champion?

Mike Liut lost the writers' vote but won the Lester B. Pearson Award, the players' own choice of most outstanding player, after backstopping a 107-point team.

Which Blues forward did Vegas select in the 2017 expansion draft?

David Perron had a career-best season in Vegas, then returned to St. Louis as a free agent for a third stint and won the Stanley Cup at the end of his first year back.

Brett Hull's United States beat which country in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey final?

Canada was the land of Hull's own birth: born in Ontario, he chose to play for the Americans and helped them upset the favourites in the first World Cup of Hockey.

Which coach led the Blues to a franchise-record 114 points and the Presidents' Trophy in 1999-2000?

Joel Quenneville won the Jack Adams Award that season; fired by the Blues in 2004, he went on to win three Stanley Cups as a head coach elsewhere.

Which AHL club became the Blues' top minor-league affiliate in 2020?

Springfield Thunderbirds signed a five-year deal in March 2020, sat out the pandemic season that followed, then reached the Calder Cup Final in their first year with Blues prospects.

Which defenseman was named the Blues' 19th captain in February 2008 after half a season without one?

Eric Brewer filled the vacancy left when Dallas Drake's contract was bought out, and in 2011 the Blues traded him to Tampa Bay for a package that included the draft pick they used on their 2019 Cup-winning goalie.