Hockey was in St Louis, long before the Blues opened their inaugural season in 1967-68. The Ottawas Senators original team was moved from Ottawa to St Louis for the 1934-35 season. However the team fared no better in St Louis than it did in Ottawa, finishing the season in 5th place with a 11-31-6 record. The NHL refused to suspend operations of the team for a year and elected to terminate the franchise and dispersed the players throughout the NHL.

The Blues began their history with some of the biggest names in hockey at the time. Players like Al Arbour, Red Berensen, Terry Crisp, Doug Harvey, Glenn Hall and Dickie Moore were among the first players selected. Meanwhile behind the bench was the team of Lynn Patrick and Scotty Bowman. Patrick came from a family with a long history in the game. Lester and Frank Patrick were noted for their early contributions to the game, and Scotty Bowman would later become synonymous with winning.

Despite the age of the St Louis player base the team flourished early in its career. The Blues were the best of the expansion teams and for the first 3 years they made it all the way to the finals, only to lose each time. This success also served them well with their fans. In a city that had not had an NHL team for over 30 years, it was important that they were accepted early. Many of the early players said that the team and the fans felt like a family. And indeed even the owners, Sidney J Salomon Jr. and his family sent the players on Florida vacations and provided them with cars, something that was not commonplace at the time.

By the time their fourth season rolled around the Blues were still among the best in their division but their playoff success began to dwindle. In 1971, Sidney Salomon III took over from his father, and began to play more of a pivotal point in the team. Although he tried to make things better, the team began to exist in a constant state of disarray. Both coaches and general managers came and went.

One of the major issues facing the Blues and every other NHL team was the World Hockey Association which had scooped over 60 NHL players, thus depleting the talent pool substantially. In 1976-77 Emile "the Cat" Francis stepped to help the cash strapped Blues. One of Francis' first successes was to convince Ralston Purina chairman R. Hal Dean to invest in the team. Francis continued to make moves which would strengthen the team both at the time and in the future. In the 1976 Amateur Draft Francis selected Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter and Mike Liut. All three would later be major contributors to the Blues success in the 1980's. Both Federko and Sutter still hold team records in the year 2000, which confirms their superior capabilities at the time.

In later years Francis added players like Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. He also convinced Purina to repaint the "arena" and renamed it the "Checkerdome." Despite all the changes, the Blues were still unable to turn things around. By the 1982-83 season they finished with 65 points, the fourth lowest total in the team's history. Red Berenson was fired and Hal Dean retired, and Ralston Purina soon lost interest in hockey. Purina tried to sell the team to Saskatoon interests, but when the NHL blocked the sale, Purina locked the Checkerdome and the Blues were not allowed to participated in the NHL Entry Draft.

Harry Ornest purchased the team and installed Ron Caron as general manager and Jacques Demers as coach. Between the three of them, the team started to rebuild. They went back to the basics and traded for veterans who had the ability to pull through. The city had rallied behind this type of blue collar hockey club as they had done before, and the goal was to have them do it again.

Although they didn't win the series, the 1986 Conference Championship against the Calgary Flames was perhaps the pinnacle for most the then St Louis Blues. They were down 5-2 with under 12 minutes to go, when Brian Sutter began the comeback at 8:08 of the third period. Greg Paslawski followed that with a pair of goals to tie the game up and send it into overtime. Doug Wickenheiser popped in the winner at 7:30 of the first OT period to send the series to a 7th and final game. The Flames proved too much for the Blues, but coach Demers still cites that game as one of the highlights of his career.

Demers left the following season and Ornest sold the club to a local ownership group headed up by Michael Shannahan. Caron was still the general manager and he began to work wonders in the area of player acquisition. Over a two year period he acquired Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Curtis Joseph, Brendan Shannahan, Phil Housley, Al MacInnis and Steve Duschesne. Caron was able to mold the Blues offense around Brett Hull and match him up with Adam Oates. With Oates feeding Hull, and Hull's deadly shot, it was inevitable that Hull became the all time season scoring leader by scoring 86 goals, more than any other player in the history of the NHL. The only player to better that mark is Wayne Gretzky, with 92.

The team was doing well financially and in the standings which translated into fans in the seats. A new ownership group purchased the club from Shannahan and decided to build a new arena, the Keil Center for the 1994 season. One of Shannahan's final duties was to hire Mike Keenan as coach. Keenan stirred things up quickly by trading away fan favorite Brendan Shannahan, as well as Petr Nedved and Craig Janney. He also was running into some friction with Brett Hull. Keenan acquired Wayne Gretzky for a final kick at the 1995-96 playoff season. At the same time Fuhr suffered a severe knee injury ending his season and forcing Jon Casey into net. The Blues still couldn't manage to make it to the playoff finals.

In December of 1996, Mike Keenan was fired and Joel Quenneville replaced him as coach and Larry Pleau became general manager. In July of 1998, the Dallas Stars signed Brett Hull as a free agent. The Blues still have a reason to believe in their capabilities. They have since signed players like Pavol Demitra and retained others like Chris Pronger and Pierre Turgeon for the 2000-2001 season. If the past is any indication, the Blues will be able to rebuild another contender, and perhaps sometime in their second 30 years, they will be able to bring home the Stanley Cup.