St. Louis Blues: 5 moves that got them to the Stanley Cup Final
The St. Louis Blues have waited a long time to return to the Stanley Cup Final. Here are the top five moves they made in the past that led them to hockey’s biggest stage.
The St. Louis Blues wasted no time getting to the Stanley Cup Final after their inception. In fact, the Blues were one of the last two teams standing for their first three seasons in the NHL. They were swept in 1968 and 1969 by the Montreal Canadiens and swept once again in 1970 by Bobby Orr‘s Boston Bruins.
It was quite an accomplishment for an expansion team to have three straight final appearances. They ultimately proved to be in over their heads as they went winless in each of those trips. Fans in St. Louis must have been assuming success came easy in the NHL.
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However, the team took another 49 years to return to the Stanley Cup Finals. They had some great coaches over the years, including Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Ken Hitchcock and Joel Quenneville who would all win Stanley Cups elsewhere.
They had great players like Adam Oates, Brett Hull, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis and Bernie Federko to name a few, but they could never get back to the Final.
That is, until this season. The Blues were infamously the worst team in the league just after New Year’s Day, but climbed all the way back and are now two wins away from lifting the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
How did they build the best team in franchise history? Let’s take a look at the top five moves that sent this team to the Stanley Cup Final.