- [Narrator] From 1988 to 1993,
the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks
met in five out of the six post seasons.
So what happened when two teams predisposed
to hate each other, took turns ending each other season
year after year after year in a sport
that allows/encourages fighting with sticks?
Within those six years of direct combat,
everyone did their part
to make the decades long rivalry rise to beef.
Coaches and players traded teams and allegiances.
The same guy kept getting away with monster hits
on the Blues yet when the Blues hit him,
it just kind of made him stronger.
Oh, also the Blues picked up a guy
who allegedly tried to blind a Chicago player.
The pot lid was shaking.
Steam was billowing out the sides.
And finally on March 17th, 1991,
the lid blew off spewing beef across the ice
in a game so violent it would become known
as the St Patrick's Day Massacre.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Let's set the scene.
There are four things I want to tell you
about the history of these teams.
First of all, they're less than 300 miles apart.
So fans can easily travel to away games,
though if you value your blood staying inside your body,
you might not want to.
Second, the stadiums themselves played a role
in riling up fans.
They were built to be raucous.
Third, the Hawks are the only reason the Blues even exist.
In the sixties,
Hawks owner, Arthur Wirtz also owned a stadium
in St. Louis that was mostly used
for the National Dairy Show.
It was not a lucrative investment.
So in 1966 when the league was considering giving
either Baltimore or St Louis an expansion team,
Wirtz lobbied hard for St. Louis,
sponsored their bid and sold his stadium
to the new team's owner.
This created an instant little brother, big brother,
you owe me type relationship between the teams
which the Blues didn't like and after a while,
the Blackhawks didn't like either
because nobody likes a little brother
who's better than you at sports.
Which brings me to my last bit of scene setting,
in their first three years of existence,
St. Louis went to the Stanley Cup finals three times.
Sure. they didn't win any of those
and the only reason they made it was the finals format
guaranteed one of the expansion teams would get the spot,
but still got further than Chicago.
In your face.
The close quarters and ire of fans
made this rivalry strong and fun,
but it was just an appetizer for the beef.
In 1988, after a regular season
full of some not great hockey,
the Blues and Hawks still made the playoffs
and met in the snorris, I mean, Norris division semis.
While the numbers in the win column weren't high,
temper's certainly were.
Consider this anecdote.
In game five Hawks coach Bob Murdoch was so frustrated,
he went into a meeting room during the first intermission
presumably to scream obscenities too vile
for even the locker room.
In anger, he slammed the door so hard the lock fell out,
trapping him.
They had to get a forklift to smash down the door
and free him.
To be fair to Murdoch, game five was an elimination game
and Chicago did get eliminated.
It was the Blues young star, Brett Hull,
who scored twice in the third period
to put the game out of reach
which was particularly insulting to Chicago fans.
Brett's dad was longtime Hawk's hero Bobby Hull
and now his kid was betraying them,
but they loved Bobby.
In the off season, both Chicago and St. Louis
fired their head coaches and tried to land
recently available, always formidable, kind of scary,
Mike Keenan.
He had taken the Flyers to the Stanley Cup twice
in four years and both teams wanted that to happen to them,
if not more.
But Chicago had more money to throw Keenan's way
so they got him.
And Blue's ex coach Jacques Martin,
he took a job with the Hawks as Keenan's top assistant
putting himself in a wonderful position
to live out the revenge fantasies
against his former employer that he was undoubtedly having.
But the Blues dominated the 88-89 regular season series
going 6-1-1.
They finished second in the division
while the Hawks barely made the playoffs.
In fact, Chicago had the worst record
of all teams in the playoffs,
which made it all the more impressive
when they upset the Red Wings in six games
and advanced to the division finals against
their best buds in the whole wide world.
The Blues were expected to continue their dominance
but they came out too confident, too lackadaisical,
too stinky and Chicago took game one
as well as game three and four.
The Hawks, in position to eliminate the Blues in game five,
got some help from an unlikely hero.
Jeremy Roenick had been called up for the playoffs.
Early in game five, an errant skate hit him in the face
and he got eight stitches,
but face stitches didn't keep him from the ice
nor did it keep him from a high sticking dual
with Glen Featherstone later in the game.
Featherstone won breaking Roenick's nose
and knocking out his teeth.
Roenick suppressed the urge to spit his teeth out
which he says is the natural instinct
when your teeth get knocked out
and I have to take his word for it.
Why didn't he give into instinct and spit his teeth out?
Because he wanted to show them to the ref
to make sure Featherstone got a major penalty.
It worked.
To have that sort of presence of mind
right after the bones of your face
are smashed with a hockey stick,
that is not my understanding of how pain works.
Oh, and in the resulting power play,
Roenick came out of the box and hit a game-sealing
40 foot goal.
That is not my understanding of how pain works.
Chicago sent the Blues home just as the Blues had done
to them the year before.
In 1990 they met in the Norris division finals
but things were a little different this year.
First, both teams were contenders.
They each had the Stanley Cup in their sights
though they had to look past each other to see it.
Second, in the middle of the season,
Chicago had picked up former Blues first round draft pick,
Jocelyn Lemieux from Montreal.
Lemieux felt the Blues had never given him a fair shake
and expected too much from him when he was just a kid.
Now with Chicago,
Lemieux had a chance to show them how much he had matured.
Wait, is matured the right word?
Lemieux made a key play in game four of the division finals.
No, not a heroic goal or a precise assist.
Rather, he annoyed Brett Hull,
the crux of the St. Louis offense,
until Hull high sticked him so hard he got ejected.
It was classic Lemieux.
He got five stitches above his eye
but seemed to think it was worth it.
The series went to do or die game seven
where the Blues self-destructed.
Hull, the NHL's leading playoff scorer,
was a non-factor.
Meanwhile, everyone on Chicago was a factor.
Chicago eliminated St. Louis for the second year in a row.
In the off season,
the Blues made some roster moves that sure, sure
helped the team, but bonus, pissed off Chicago.
First, they picked up free agent Scott Stevens
from the Capitals.
In 1990, Stevens and Chicago defenseman Dave Manson
got in a uniquely vicious fight.
Manson said Stevens tried to gouge his eyes out.
Around here, I guess.
And that's why he was forced, in self-defense,
to bite Stevens in the hand.
Steven said he only scratched Manson's face near his eyes.
And that was after Manson bit him.
Since nobody could tell
whether the bite or the face scratch was first,
the league suspended both for three games.
St. Louis further enhanced their roster
by grabbing Chicago's Bob Bassen off the waiver draft.
Insulted at even being put on the waiver draft,
Bassen was determined to do well against Chicago.
In their first matchup of the year,
the Blues lost, but Bassen cut Jeremy Roenick.
Doing well can be defined in a number of ways.
Then in late December with both teams neck and neck
at the top of the league,
Bassen got into it with Lemieux.
Lemieux went for a groin shot and the gloves went flying.
Their February home-and-home series started
with Roenick delivering a huge uncalled hit on Bassen.
Some said Roenick's hit was one of the best of the year
while the Blues GM Ron Caron said
Roenick nearly decapitated Bassen
and that's not all Caron said.
He called Roenick a dirty player
and implied his style of physical play was cowardly.
Now Caron did say Roenick was talented and cute
but only as an explanation as to why the refs
let him get away with stuff.
Not to worry, there's an opportunity for the Blues
to take justice into their own hands the very next game.
In which the first period took over an hour to play
due to penalties.
David Lowry did get some revenge on Roenick
but was it enough?
A month later, these teams had another home-and-home series.
With just nine games until the playoffs,
the stakes were even higher.
They were sure to meet in the division finals,
but home ice for that series would be determined
in these two games.
When Roenick scored in the first game,
he raised his arms in celebration
and Scott Stevens let him know
nobody had forgotten his hit on Bassen last month.
Dave Manson and Steve Thomas held him down
so Dirk Graham could punch him more easily.
Chicago won, but the drama wasn't done yet.
Remember? Home-and-home.
Overnight, the Blues brought up Kelly Chase
just in case they needed another enforcer
or perhaps to guarantee they needed another enforcer.
In the second game,
After about six minutes of play,
Roenick smashed Harold Snepsts.
No call, but Glenn Featherstone informed Roenick
that he shouldn't do that.
Pete Brown protected Roenick
by pulling the old Beavis and Butthead move on Featherstone.
Blues coach Brian Sutter sent in
Kelly Chase and Darin Kimble
which he said was just an innocent line change.
But to Chicago, it sure seemed like
Sutter was sending his tough guys in to attack Roenick
and that's a fair conclusion considering
Brind'Amour and Kimble two-on-oned Roenick
during the line brawl that had broken out.
Snepsts took Yanni down.
Kimball eventually got Roenick alone.
I don't know where Brind'Amour went.
Eventually the refs got control
and six players were ejected.
In the second period, everyone was calm and gentle.
Just kidding, everyone's eyes turned red
and their neck veins stood out
and they skated around mumbling "just give me a reason".
And they got one when Steve Larmer
high sticked Paul Cavallini.
Mike Keenan was instantly like, "hey,
I'm also doing a line change with my toughest guys"
and sent out Mike Peluso and Stu Grimson.
Fights broke out all over the ice.
It wasn't clear where to focus your attention
so the camera's just zoomed out to show it all
until Manson and Stevens,
the biter and the gouger, found each other in the corner.
But that's no place for the main event.
Manson beckoned Stevens to center ice
and the delicate ballet
that is punching while on ice skates began.
Both landed some hard hits.
Steven's finished on top, but bloodied.
And apparently, while we were all watching the boxing match,
everyone else kept on fighting.
Look how tired Jeff Brown and Wayne Presley are.
The game that would become known
as the St. Patrick's Day Massacre saw 278 penalty minutes,
including 24 minor, 12 major and 17 misconduct penalties.
12 players were ejected and oh yeah, the Hawks won 6-4.
In the aftermath,
both sides said what they were supposed to say
while they waited for the league to dole out consequences.
Kelly and Paluso were suspended 10 games
and Scott Stevens got two.
It's a good thing they didn't wait until the post-season
to go at each other's throats.
One, because you don't want a player suspended
deep into the playoffs and two,
because Chicago got upset in the semis
and thus there was no playoff matchup.
In 92, they faced each in the Norris semis
but almost as if they knew they'd gone too far last year,
things were relatively calm.
The Hawks won in six games.
It was Roenick who put the nail in the coffin
scoring twice in game six's 2-1 victory
which I'm sure Blues fans noted through slit eyes.
The 93 regular season saw
some of their signature rough stuff return
even though the two teams were on the opposite ends
of the division.
With the 98 wins,
Chicago finished third in the league
and was gunning for the Stanley Cup.
The Blues finished 21 points behind the Hawks
and just barely made the playoffs.
How embarrassing for Chicago when in the division semis,
the lowly Blues went up three games to none.
Game four went into overtime where Hull
kind of got in goalie Ed Belfour's way
as Craig Janney slid the series winning goal
into the empty net.
Belfour wanted an interference call
but the ref wasn't hearing him.
He filed complaints, first with the goal
then later with the visiting locker room.
Despite Belfour's wrath,
the 1993 playoff series actually ended this chapter
of the Blues Hawks book of beef.
The pages are slices of roast beef.
Thanks to a division realignment and early playoff exits,
St. Louis and Chicago did not meet in the postseason
again until 2002.
Rivals since the Blues inception,
the late eighties/early nineties Hawks-Blues beef,
was defined by swollen-faced heroics,
loyalty switches, personal animosities,
brawls, of course, but overall
it was the fact that these teams
were locked in competition with one another
for six unrelenting years.
They could not escape each other.
All they could do was eat beef.