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The St. Louis Blues are a National Hockey League team based in Saint Louis, Missouri. They are named after the famous W. C. Handy tune " St. Louis Blues".

Founded: 1967

Arena: Savvis Center (formerly Kiel Center)

Uniform colors: Blue, white, and gold

Logo design: A winged musical note with lines departing to the right

Stanley Cups won: 0

1 Franchise history

The Blues were one of the Expansion six to enter the league in 1967 when the NHL doubled in size. The newcomers were hampered by restrictive rules that kept virtually all the top players with the existing teams.

Although the Blues, originally coached by Lynn Patrick , then Scotty Bowman, made the Stanley Cup finals in each of their first three years of existence, they failed to win a game, losing twice to the Montreal Canadiens and once to the Boston Bruins. The first Blues teams included aging retreads like Doug Harvey, Jacques Plante and Dickie MooreDickie Moore (born January 6, 1931, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played with the Montreal Canadiens from 1951 to 1963. Dickie started playing with the Montreal Jr. Royals for three seasons from 1947 to 1950, an, in addition to younger and relatively inexperienced talent like Red Berenson and Bob and Barclay Plager St. Louis has not been back to the finals since.

Through the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, the Blues, playing mostly sub-.500 hockey, were on the brink of financial collapse. Ralston PurinaRalston Purina was a major American corporation best known for its production and marketing of animal feeds. Purina was based in St. Louis, Missouri. It was famed for its "checkerboard" pattern that it used on its product packaging, which was an important invested in the team, and by 1980See also 1979 in sports, other events of 1980, 1981 in sports and the list of 'years in sports'. Auto Racing Stock car racing: NASCAR Championship Dale Earnhardt Buddy Baker won the Daytona 500 CART Racing Johnny Rutherford won the season championship Ind they were the second-best team in the league in the regular season, with Berenson as coach, Wayne Babych scoring 54 goals, and Bernie FederkoBorn May 12th, 1956 at Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, Bernie Federko played NHL hockey as a forward. He started in St. Louis in the 1976/77 season, where he remained until traded to the Detroit Red Wings, for whom he played his final professional season in 1989 leading the team in scoring. The Blues fell flat in the playoffs that year, losing in six games to the New York Rangers in the second round.

The Blues quietly slid back below .500, but they still made the playoffs in 1982 (and have done so every year since 1980). The team was still faltering off the ice. Purina got out of its investment with the team and padlocked the arena. The team looked destined for a move to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1983 before the league blocked the sale to a group of investors led by Bill Hunter, and ended up having to take over the team itself.

After Harry Ornest ended up purchasing the team, it became competitive both on and off the ice. Doug Gilmour, drafted by St. Louis in 1982, emerged as a superstar. By 1986, they reached the league semi-finals against the Calgary Flames. Doug Wickenheiser 's overtime goal in game 6 to cap a furious comeback remains one of the greatest moments in team history, but they lost game 7 2-1.

Demers left for the rival Detroit Red Wings that summer, but the Blues kept chugging along. General Manager Ron Caron was one of the more astute in the league, landing Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Curtis Joseph, Brendan Shanahan and Al MacInnis, among others, through the late 1980s and early 1990s. Always a contender during this time period, they never passed the second round of the playoffs.

Hull remained one of the league's top superstars, scoring 86 goals in 1990- 1991 - second only to Wayne Gretzky (who himself played in St. Louis briefly in 1996) in goals scored in a season in NHL history. The Blues were the second-best team in the regular season last year, but a second-round defeat to the Minnesota North Stars was exemplary of their playoff woes.

Caron was reinstated as general manager, but even he could not stop the tide of free agency. Hull left for the Dallas Stars in 1998 and won the Stanley Cup in his first year in the Lone Star State.

Still, defenseman Chris Pronger (acquired from the Hartford Whalers in 1995), Pavol Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, and goalie Roman Turek, continued to make the Blues a contender. In 1999- 2000 they had the best record in the NHL during the regular season, but were stunned by the San Jose Sharks in the first round.

In 2001 the Blues made the conference finals before bowing out to the eventual champion Colorado Avalanche.