100 Things Blues Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

by Jeremy Rutherford, Brett Hull (Foreword by)

Overview

Covering the entire 45-year history of the Blues, author Jeremy Rutherford has collected every essential piece of Blues knowledge and trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranks them from 1 to 100. Most Blues fans have taken in a game or two at the Scottrade Center, have seen highlights of a young Brett Hull, and are aware that the team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song “Saint Louis Blues”. But only real fans know who scored the first goal in franchise history, can name all of the Blues players whose numbers are retired, or can tell you the best place to grab a bite in St. Louis before the game. 100 Things Blues Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the definitive resource guide for both seasoned and new fans of the St. Louis Blues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623682835
Publisher:	Triumph Books
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Series:	100 Things...Fans Should Know Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Jeremy Rutherford has covered the Blues for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 2005. His popular Morning Skate Blog is fans' go-to source for the latest news on St. Louis’ NHL team. Rutherford previously hosted a radio show on KFSN 590 AM with former Blues tough guy Reed Lowe. He lives in Imperial, Missouri. Brett Hull played for six NHL teams from 1986 to 2005 and is the former executive vice president of the Dallas Stars. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and the St. Louis Blues retired his No. 16 jersey. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Read an Excerpt

100 Things Blues Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

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By Jeremy Rutherford

Triumph Books

Copyright © 2014 Jeremy Rutherford
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62368-283-5

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CHAPTER 1

Monday Night Miracle

For a franchise still looking to hoist its first Stanley Cup, there is nothing that can elicit more emotion in a Blues fan than a mere mention of the "Monday Night Miracle."

On May 12, 1986, the Blues trailed the Calgary Flames three games to two in the Campbell Conference finals, and they were behind 4–1 going into the third period of Game 6 at the Arena.

"It was a do-or-die situation for us, and we all knew that," Blues Hall of Famer Bernie Federko said. "We came in the locker room after the second period, and basically Coach Jacques Demers said, 'Guys, we've had a great year. Whatever happens in this next period, it's been a great year.' But you never know what can happen.

"We all knew that [Barclay Plager] had cancer, and Barc was in pretty bad shape. We were all pushing to try and do something for Barc. And it just happened the way it did."

Here's how it happened:

The Blues' Doug Wickenheiser scored a five-on-three advantage to pull the club within 4–2. But Calgary's Joe Mullen countered, beating Blues goalie Rick Wamsley on a slapshot that put the Flames back up 5–2 with 12:56 left in regulation.

Several folks in the crowd of 17,801 began to depart, including former Blues defenseman Bruce Affleck.

"I was in the real-estate business, and I had a presentation the next morning," Affleck said. "We left when they were down by three, thinking this was a chance to go home and get a good night's sleep and make a good presentation."

It wasn't as good as the presentation the Blues were about to make.

Like Wickenheiser, who had made the long road back from knee surgery, Blues captain Brian Sutter had been out since January with a shoulder injury, but he returned to the ice in the playoffs. Sutter showed a glimpse of his old self, scoring his first goal of the playoffs 62 seconds after Mullen.

The Blues' Greg Paslawski put the puck on net from the right circle, and Calgary's 22-year-old rookie goalie, Mike Vernon, broomed it to his right. Sutter charged the puck and hammered it home, cutting the Blues' deficit to 5–3 with 11:54 left.

"And the roller-coaster ride continues," Blues announcer Ken Wilson bellowed on the broadcast.

Five minutes, however, separated the Blues from their off-season. They could have used Brett Hull, but this was two years before his trade from Calgary, and Hull was a healthy scratch for the Flames, watching from the pressbox.

But the Blues would have other heroes rise to the occasion.

Doug Gilmour chipped the puck into the offensive zone in the right corner where Sutter hustled to fetch it. Sutter backhanded a pass in front of the net, and Paslawski didn't allow the Flames time to react, snapping a shot past Vernon for a 5–4 score with 4:11 to play.

"We didn't want to lose," Demers said.

Perhaps not, but the clock was in Calgary's favor as it ticked under 11/2 minutes.

Photographers began leaving their ice-level spots to jockey for position where the Flames would be celebrating their conference championship.

"Boy, you get the idea if these Blues could come up with a miracle finish," Wilson said on the broadcast, "these Calgary Flames would have to crawl back to Alberta."

That miracle would need the help of one more goal to tie the game, and the Blues got it from Paslawski.

Gilmour again fired the puck into the offensive zone from just inside the red line. Vernon stopped it behind the net for Flames defenseman Jamie Macoun. Paslawski trailed Macoun undetected behind the net to the right side of Vernon. He then picked Macoun's pocket and, while spinning to his knees, let go of a surprise shot that knotted the game 5–5 with 1:08 to play.

"I made a line switch and got on the ice and just happened to swing behind the net," Paslawski said. "I just lifted [Macoun's] stick and turned around and shot, and it went in the net."

Was it luck?

"You've got to work hard to be lucky," Sutter said.

The Arena erupted after the Blues had erased Calgary leads of 4–1 and 5–2, but it was about to get louder. Regulation wrapped up with the teams deadlocked, and the teams went into their locker rooms for the overtime intermission.

"We were pretty positive that we were going to win the game. There was no question about it," Federko said. "Fate was on our side."

In OT, Mullen, a former Blue, nearly sent the Flames to the Stanley Cup final with the game-winner. But his shot hit the post, setting the stage a short time later for Wickenheiser, who was standing in the right place at the right time.

"Bernie made a beautiful pass, like he always does, over to Mark [Hunter]," Wickenheiser said after the game. "Mark shot, and the rebound came out to me. All I had to do was make sure it hit the net."

Pandemonium ensued as Wickenheiser scored the game-winner for a climactic 6–5 come-from-behind victory.

"Of all the times that I was in that building, nothing was ever louder than that," Federko said. "When Wick scored, I remember it was just before midnight when it happened. It was 12:30 or 12:45 am and the building was three-quarters full and people were still standing and cheering. It was one of the few times that I've ever felt electricity like that in any building, and I'll never forget that."

The Blues didn't forget Demers' speech heading into the third period, either.

"All Jacques said was, 'Go out there and play with pride. A lot can happen in 20 minutes,'" Wickenheiser said afterward. "We proved that tonight. We got a couple of goals, a couple of breaks, and then the fans got behind us. We didn't want to let them down."

It was a miracle, even if only hockey fans in St. Louis felt that way.

"I don't know if it's one of the greatest comebacks in the NHL," Demers said, "but it's a great comeback for the Blues."

The Flames might have crawled back to Alberta after the loss, but two nights later Calgary edged the Blues 2–1 in Game 7, taking the best-of-seven series.

"The bummer about that whole thing, as great as it was, we were a goal away from going to the Stanley Cup finals," Federko said.

There's no doubt that having an opportunity to play for the franchise's first Stanley Cup would have been even better, but had the Blues folded in Game 6, it's hard to fathom history without the Monday Night Miracle.

CHAPTER 2

MacInnis' Slap Shot

For a decade, Blues fans witnessed arguably the hardest slap shot in the history of the NHL.

The windup of Al MacInnis is a pose frozen in time, thanks to a statue outside Scottrade Center. And even more solid than the marble used to make the monument was the puck that came off the release.

"[MacInnis' shot is] very, very hard, and he puts it right in the best spot," former Montreal and Colorado goalie Patrick Roy once said. "His shot is hard to watch because it starts going faster as it comes at you."

MacInnis won the hardest shot contest at the NHL's skills competition seven times from 1991–2003, reaching 100.1 mph with his blast that won the contest in 2000. MacInnis edged Ottawa's Zdeno Chara for the title in 2003, hitting 98.9 mph.

"That guy's a freak," Jeremy Roenick said afterward. "I'm never getting in front of one of his shots, I'll tell you that."

Perhaps making MacInnis' power even more impressive was that in an era when many players were taking advantage of new stick technology, MacInnis, who played 13 seasons in Calgary before a trade to the Blues in 1994, was doing this with a wooden twig.

"I tried using the composite sticks last year, and I just couldn't feel comfortable," MacInnis said at the time. "I went back to [the wood]. They seem to have a little more give, a little more feel."

Upon hearing that, Boston's Joe Thornton quipped, "I wouldn't change that stick, either. He just has a rocket, and everyone knows that."

MacInnis' boomer was crafted in Nova Scotia. In a now-famous tale, MacInnis would lay down a sheet of plywood, grab a bucket of pucks, and rifle them off the wood at the side of the family's barn.

"I remember spending hours out there," MacInnis said. "I was just doing it to pass the time, never thinking it would end up the way it did and [that I would] be known for the slap shot. There's no question that's how the shot became what it is."

MacInnis began his career as a right winger, but his Midget coach in Nova Scotia switched him to defense and watched him take off from there.

"I had better hockey players, maybe five or six better than him on that team," coach Donnie MacIsaac said. "But I don't know if I had anyone more dedicated, more determined. He knew what he wanted."

MacInnis, chosen No. 15 overall by the Flames in 1981, played junior hockey with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League. In his third season with Kitchener, MacInnis tied Bobby Orr's single-season junior record of 38 goals, which came in 51 games.

"My coach [Joe Crozier] was watching me shoot pucks after practice one day, and he came over shaking his head and said, 'Kid, that shot is going to get you into the NHL some day,'" MacInnis remembered. "And sure enough, it was a shot that gave me a chance to play."

In 1983–84, MacInnis joined Calgary full-time and netted 11 goals and 45 points in 51 games.

"He used to terrorize goaltenders with it back in junior hockey," Flames GM Cliff Fletcher said, "and he brought it with him."

Just ask former Blues goalie Mike Liut.

On January 17, 1984, long before his arrival in St. Louis, MacInnis knocked down Liut with a blister that broke his mask.

"Back then nobody pre-scouted, and when the Flames' lineup was posted, nobody in our room knew who this MacInnis kid was," Liut said. "We turned the puck over in the neutral zone, and MacInnis takes this shot from just outside the blue line — I'm thinking, Can of corn. No problem. But the puck explodes off his stick like a fastball.

"It's going to go about 2' over the net, but suddenly I'm trying to get out of the way. He shot it from 65' away, and it hits me in the wire before I can move 8". The joke was that nobody knew this guy — that's the first thing somebody should have told me. It's not like he developed this shot overnight."

The puck dropped and spun into the net for a goal.

"It made the papers all across Canada," MacInnis said.

MacInnis made his biggest headlines in 1989 when he led Calgary to a Stanley Cup. He set an NHL record for defensemen with a point in 17 consecutive playoff games en route to the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP.

"You didn't have to coach Al MacInnis — just open the gate and let him go," said Terry Crisp, MacInnis' former coach in Calgary. "Everybody says what a shot he had. Yeah, he had a great shot, a booming shot, but he thought the game. He could set you up for the slap shot, he could wrist a shot off it, he could make the play to the side of the net to get it on net. He wasn't just a one-dimensional hockey player [like] everybody seems to think."

In 1994, on the Fourth of July, the Blues acquired MacInnis in a trade for defenseman Phil Housley. During a decade-long run in St. Louis, No. 2 continued to dominate on both blue lines.

In 1999, at age 35, MacInnis led all NHL defensemen with 62 points, including 20 goals, and he had a plus-33 rating. A five-time finalist for the Norris Trophy, he finally took home the award as the league's top defenseman. At age 39, he played in his 13 NHL All-Star game.

"He was just a dynamic player, and he didn't get enough credit for his defensive play," said former Blue Dallas Drake. "He was great in his own zone."

On September 9, 2005, after an NHL lockout canceled the 2004–05 season, MacInnis retired because of an eye injury and a belief that he could no longer compete at a high level.

In the history of the game, MacInnis ranks third in goals (340), assists (934), and points (1,274) by a defenseman.

"Probably his biggest asset is, if you ever met him or if you know him, was the way he treated people and the way he respected the game," said former Nashville coach Barry Trotz, a teammate and roommate of MacInnis' in the minor leagues. "Those are things that are going to endure way past records or the guy with the big shot."

CHAPTER 3

Gassoff Dies Tragically

The day had finally come.

"I got a call from my brother Barclay and he said, 'Let's go,'" Bobby Plager remembers. "He says, 'It's Diane. They took her to the hospital, she's going to have the baby, let's go. We said we'd be there.'"

Two months earlier, in the spring of 1977, Diane's husband, Bob Gassoff — arguably the toughest pound-for-pound player ever to wear the Blue Note — was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. The horrific scene occurred on Memorial Day weekend in Gray Summit, Missouri, where many in the Blues' organization were gathered for a BBQ at the home of player Garry Unger.

Teammates loved the 5'10", 190-lb. Gassoff, who had been a third-round pick of the Blues in 1973.

In 1976–77, Gassoff posted six goals and 24 points, but he wasn't known for his offense. He amassed 254 penalty minutes in 77 games that season, or an average of 3.3 minutes per game.

Gassoff wasn't afraid of anyone. Two of his 10 fights in the 1976–77 season were against a Philadelphia Flyers rookie named Paul Holmgren, who stood 6'3" and weighed 210 lbs. Another was against Chicago's Grant Mulvey (6'4", 200).

"He was probably one of the most feared guys in the National Hockey League," former Blues teammate Bruce Affleck said. "Not big, 5'11" maybe, 200 lbs. maybe. But I tell the story, he got run over by a tractor when he was five years old and he lived. That's just the type of guy he was."

The Blues' annual end-of-the-season BBQ was a chance for players to wind down and relax.

"I was with Gasser on the four-wheeler going around the ranch," Plager said. "We came back and dropped off the four-wheel. We were getting ready to eat, and somebody had put the dirt bikes out there. Bruce [Affleck], another young kid, and Gasser — they picked up the bikes and away they went."

The Unger property was hilly. Affleck was in front, followed by the kid, and Gassoff was in the rear.

Driving toward them in a car was Douglas Klekamp, 19, who had been parking cars and running errands for Unger. Klekamp was returning to the party after making a trip for soda and ice.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from 100 Things Blues Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Jeremy Rutherford. Copyright © 2014 Jeremy Rutherford. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Brett Hull,
1. Monday Night Miracle,
2. MacInnis' Slap Shot,
3. Gassoff Dies Tragically,
4. Picard Trips Orr,
5. Greatest Blue in History,
6. Redhead Scores Six Goals,
7. American-Born Stars,
8. Consummate Competitor,
9. Ironman Streak Almost Never Started,
10. The Arena,
11. Sutter Wills Brothers and Blues,
12. St. Louis Apollos,
13. Inception of the Blues,
14. Wick,
15. 14 Fund,
16. A Hull of an Era,
17. Picard Takes Break in Enemy Territory,
18. "Meat on the Burner",
19. Blues-Blackhawks Rivalry,
20. Courtnall Calls His Shot,
21. Original Captain,
22. Patrick Gone Too Soon,
23. Francis Revitalizes Franchise,
24. Federko Proves to Be Fabulous,
25. Longest Playoff Streak,
26. Old Man,
27. Mayhem in Philadelphia,
28. Blues Help Create Broad Street Bullies,
29. Bowman Was "Great, Great Coach",
30. Four Ex-Coaches Win Stanley Cup,
31. Here Comes Cheveldae,
32. Gilmour Traded after Civil Suit,
33. The Building Went Silent,
34. Iron Mike,
35. Stevens Awarded to New Jersey,
36. Rebirth for Hall,
37. "Saved My Life",
38. Demitra Dies in Plane Crash,
39. Friends and Foes,
40. Jackman Captures Calder,
41. JD,
42. "It's a Privilege",
43. Hockey Prankster,
44. Shanahan for Pronger: Yes or No?,
45. Bergevin Throws Puck into Own Net,
46. Tales from the Training Room,
47. Take a Ride on an Olympia,
48. Russian Invasion,
49. Golf Getaway,
50. One-Hit Wonder,
51. Go to O'B Clark's after a Game,
52. Pronger's Heart Stops,
53. Perfect Attendance,
54. Clean Sweep,
55. St. Louis Natives Increase in NHL,
56. St. Louis Scribe Publishes Plus-Minus Stat,
57. Voice of the Blues,
58. "It's a Real Barnburner",
59. KMOX and the Blues,
60. Oh Baby,
61. A Coup for Coach Q,
62. Pleau Forced to Trade Pronger,
63. How Swede It Is!,
64. Mental Case,
65. Shorthanded Success,
66. Stastny Suits Up for Blues,
67. Salomons,
68. Ralston Purina,
69. Harry Ornest,
70. Mike Shanahan,
71. Kiel Center Partners,
72. Bill and Nancy Laurie,
73. Dave Checketts and SCP Worldwide,
74. Tom Stillman,
75. Where Were the Blues on 9/11?,
76. Ulterior Motive,
77. Staniowski Stands on Head,
78. Danton's Murder-for-Hire Case,
79. Business Role Model,
80. Spanish Conquistador,
81. MacTavish, the Last Helmetless Player,
82. Liut Worth the Wait,
83. The Other Lemieux,
84. Goalie Shoots, He Scores,
85. Harvey Finishes Hall of Fame Career with Blues,
86. Hull Scores 86,
87. Blues Get Bold,
88. Towel Man Tradition,
89. Attend Big Walt's Fantasy Camp,
90. Go Ask Susie,
91. "We Had the Cup",
92. Visit the Hockey Hall of Fame,
93. The Record Shop,
94. Hull & Oates,
95. Blues Light Lamp 11 Times,
96. Yzerman Turns Out the Lights,
97. Sacharuk Joins Exclusive Club,
98. Hrkac Circus,
99. Wayne's World,
100. Massive Headache,
Acknowledgments,
Sources,