The St. Louis Blues have had their share of ups and downs over the years, but this 1995 story profiled a time in which Mike Keenan and Brett Hull tried to usher in a successful era for the team.
Feb. 10, 1995, Vol. 48, No. 21The St. Louis Blues have had some roller-coaster experiences in the past handful of seasons. In this cover story from The Hockey News’ Feb. 10, 1995 edition (Vol. 48, Issue 21), THN contributor Jeff Gordon penned an in-depth story on the Blues’ attempts to rise to power and the influence of then-first-year Blues coach/GM Mike Keenan.
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Keenan took over as Blues boss in 1994, with the St. Louis franchise trying desperately to be more than a first-round-and-out Stanley Cup playoff team. The team embraced Keenan’s systems and approach to the game.
“The players here are pretty happy,” said first-year Blues forward Esa Tikkanen, who had worked with Keenan when both were employed by the New York Rangers. “We had a great training camp. We got off to a great start. The guys have been working really hard.”
Another key move by Keenan was working with star winger and captain Brett Hull. Having two strong personalities in positions of leadership could’ve backfired, but Hull and Keenan made it work.
“I understand why people want to run with (stories about clashes between Hull and Keenan),” Hull told Gordon. “It’s because of my reputation. But my reputation has come from all the bull that has gone on with this team for so long. Now one guy is in charge.”
WIN-WIN SITUATION
Feb. 10, 1995, Vol. 48, No. 21
By Jeff Gordon
Right from Day 1, Mike Keenan has built great expectations for the St. Louis Blues.
Is all this Stanley Cup talk unrealistic? Not in his mind. “Our mandate here is to win,” Keenan said as the Blues got off to a 3-1-0 start. “We said from the very beginning our goal was to win the Stanley Cup. Unless you expect it, you’ll never win it.
“We have to develop expectations for our athletes. If that means there is pressure, then they will have to deal with it. It’s something you learn to enjoy. It’s not something that has to be a burden.”
Keenan may be a complex man, but his formula for hockey success is fairly simple.
His teams are big. They try to keep the puck deep in the offensive zone and work over the opposing defense. They create turnovers and convert them into scoring chances. They work, work, work and hit, hit, hit. When push comes to shove, they fight back. Tremendous conditioning and nightly intensity are paramount. Skill is important, but not as important as character.
“It’s really a very simple system,” said new Blues’ winger Greg Gilbert, a Keenanite with the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers. “It takes a few days to learn. It’ll take a little while to get all the systems down and everybody thinking the same way.”
Keenan had his team’s full attention when the season started. He didn’t have to create one of those taxing psychodramas that made his tenures with the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago grueling.
“Mike has changed a lot since Chicago,” Gilbert said. “He’s still a very intense person. He wants to win. But that ranting and raving everybody has heard about, he hasn’t done very much of that.”
Keenan’s work with the St. Louis Blues provides a fascinating case study. After serving his 60-day suspension for abruptly exiting the Rangers’ Stanley Cup parade, Keenan began remaking this ambitious-but-misguided organization.
During the lockout, he focused on the support staff. The team trainers, team doctors and even the team dentist were jettisoned. Coincidentally, much of the team’s marketing, merchandising and public relations staff turned over as well. For years the Blues were run as a family store - with a small and friendly staff - but that quickly changed under Iron Mike.
The autumn training camp was run in unremarkable fashion by holdovers Bob Berry and Ted Sator, now associate coaches under Keenan. Then Iron Mike took over during the club’s week-long Vail, Colo., mini-camp before the shortened season began.
Though his two-a-day practices were brief - usually only 45 minutes - they were brisk. The personality of this team began to emerge. The doomed “puck control” scheme of last season became a vague memory as Keenan moved larger, less skilled, but more imposing players into prominent roles.
“The players here are pretty happy,” said new Blue Esa Tikkanen, a Keenanite in New York. “We had a great training camp. We got off to a great start. The guys have been working really hard.”
Here are the ins and outs of the New Blues:
In: Brett Hull as captain and cornerstone forward.
Out: For now, anyway, speculation that the Golden Brett and Iron Mike would be at loggerheads.
“I understand why people want to run with it,” Hull said. “It’s because of my reputation. But my reputation has come from all the bull that has gone on with this team for so long. Now one guy is in charge.”
In: Human eclipse Adam Creighton as the No. 1 center, enforcer Tony Twist as a top left winger and rugged Denis Chasse as the No. 2 right winger.
Out: Playmaker Craig Janney as the No. 1 center, speedy Kevin Miller as an integral weapon and gifted Vitali Prokhorov as a supplemental scorer. Miller sat out the second and third games of the season and Janney was scratched for the Blues’ home opener.
“Craig is a pace player,” Keenan said. “He has to learn to play at a different tempo. He has to learn to work. It’s up to him.”
Uh oh.
In: Goaltender Curtis Joseph as a bulwark performer, a la Mike Richter with the Rangers.
Out: Goaltender Jon Casey as a co-No. 1 performer. He should call Glenn Healy for coping tips.
In: Creating traffic in front of the net and shooting the puck into traffic at every opportunity.
Out: Drop passes in the defensive zone, drop passes in the neutral zone, drop passes at the blueline.
In: Body contact.
Out: Ice dancing.
In: A traveling secretary, a director of video services and a physical therapist.
Out: Bothersome writers and broadcasters on the team bus, nosy writers on chartered team flights.
The first week under Keenan went well enough, but the changes have only begun at the new Keenan, er, Kiel Center. The emergence of rookies Patrice Tardif and Craig Johnson left him with about a half-dozen extra forwards.
The wheels will continue to turn and layabouts and slackards will be tossed off the express. Are some more moves in the works?
“I can’t say one way or another until we make evaluations,” Keenan said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see the players in the preseason. We are trying to evaluate what we have in the organization. We won’t know until we place them in game situations.”
Keenan would love to add a cornerstone center and would probably part with Janney, Miller and an cadre of players to get one. The Blues also need help on defense.
“I don’t know what will happen with Tardif, Johnson and Chasse,” Keenan said. “They are playing well enough to be in the lineup right now. That gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of what assets we can acquire for the organization.”
This season, however brief, will completely remake the Blues. “The people in the locker room have had a lot of disappointments and embarrassments on a team basis,” Keenan said. “They should embrace the opportunity.”
And they will. Or else.
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