If you came of age following Blues hockey in the 1990s, your earliest memories are likely speckled with diagonal stripes, “OH BABY”s, and a collection of players who peaked in Edmonton, Chicago, New York, or almost anywhere except St. Louis.
When the Blues hired Mike Keenan in 1994, he was fresh off winning a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers. The thinking went, of course, that he could export that success to St. Louis and supplement the Brett Hull/Brendan Shanahan/Curtis Joseph core with his own brand of grit and skill.