GLORIA: The Blues win Stanley Cup

On June thirteenth, twenty and nineteen, the day after the Saint Louis Blues win the Stanley Cup, local radio station WHY ninety eight plays the song Gloria for twenty four straight hours, which became the theme song for the Blues throughout their season. Here's the story behind how the Blues won their very first Stanley Cup. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is who are the other two NHL teams that have played over fifty years and still never won a Stanley Cup title. So we're gonna take this time machine back to twenty nineteen. Everyone is listening to Lizzo and the Avengers comes to its highest point for Avengers in game, and college athletics is rocked by a scandal where Hollywood actresses are wrapped up in this college athletic recruiting scandal, paying to get their kids into colleges that they did not qualify for. And the NHL was about to have a great story of its own. See, this was a great season for the NHL, as They increased their revenue through two ways, one offering on ice advertisements that added an additional ten million dollars per team, as well as partnering with Engine Resorts to become the official online wager partner for the NHL after sports gambling became legal depending on your state, which we covered in a previous episode, and they also announced it would be expanding, adding a team in Seattle which would be named the Seattle Krakens and start playing in twenty twenty one, and the two teams that would meet each other this year would be the Saint Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins, a rematch of the nineteen seventy Stanley Cup Finals, which we also covered on a previous episode about Bobby Orr's iconic photo on his series winning goal where he flies through the air, making one of the most iconic hockey photos of all times. And in twenty nineteen, the Blues were the oldest franchise to not win a Stanley Cup, first becoming a franchise in nineteen sixty seven. This was their fiftieth year and currently there are still two teams that have played over fifty years and never won Stanley Cup finals. Which are the Buffalo Sabers in the Vancouver Canucks. And it's been over fifty six years since the Toronto Maple Leafs have won a Stanley Cup Final, which is currently the longest droute in NHL history. And the Saint Louis Blues were led by coach Mike u at the start of the season, but he was quickly fired after the team started seven nine and three and replaced by Craig Brayruba who is nicknamed the Chief. And they started the season fifteen eighteen and four, but they put the rookie goaltender Jordan being Done into the net. It changed their fortune and the team went on an eleven game winning streak and finished the season thirty ten and five, clinching the third places playoff spot for the Central Division. And we would be led by vlach Hard Nisku and goal scorer with thirty three and Ryan O'Reilly would leave the team in points and assist and their captain that year was Alec Petrigio. Now, there was one o very unique thing about the Saint Louis Blues this year. While being in the last place, some of the Blues players were in a bar in Philadelphia watching an NFL game when they heard the song Gloria by Laura Bargain being played by the DJ, they would get up and dance and sing to the song, and they made that the song they would play whenever they won a game, and they would win the next game and start to hear it played, and it started to sweep the Saint Louis area as everyone was singing Gloria for the Saint Louis Blues. And when they made the playoffs, they had first at faith the Winnipeg Jets, defeating them in six games, before moving on to the Dallas Stars, they also defeated in six games. The Dallas Stars they defeated in seven games, and then they came to the Western Conference Finals versus the San Jose Sharks, they took down in six games, setting up a rematch against the Boston Bruins. Now that jump into the Bruins season. They were led by Bruce Cassidy and their captain dgo Jara. In that year, David Passmas led them in goals and Brad Marking led them in assist and point. And this season had been twenty years since they last made the Stanley Cup Finals. This was the twentieth appearance for them. In night year, Boston finished second in the Atlantic Division and third overall in the league, and in the first round they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games. Then they went on to face the Columbus Blue Jackets and beat them in six games, setting up an Eastern Conference final versus the Carolina Hurricanes, who they swept to set up the remat against the Saint Louis Blues. Game one game on May twenty seven. It was played in Boston, where the Blues scored first in the first period and in the second period the Bruins mad mistaken actually had an own goal scored and gave the Blues the lead to to zero. But after that the Bruins would come back and score four straight goals, scoring an open net goal in the final minutes to win the game. Game two took place in Boston, where the first goal was scored on a penalty shot for goaltender interference by the Boston Bruins, but the Blues struck back. We won by just five minutes later, but forty seconds later, the Bruins were able to get a shot off in just around the bl lose goalide and which is seconds left in the first period, the Blues were able to score again. This would be the last points scored in regulation, as neither team scored in the second or third period, and the game was tied two to two at the end of regulation, and they went into over two and the Blues fired as slap shots for almost four minutes into the overtime period, giving them the victory and tying the series one to one. Game three headed to Saint Louis, where Boston came out on fire, making three goals in the first period, taking the lead, and they were able to make two more in the second period, where Saint Louis was only able to eke out just one more goal, just one goal, making the score five to one at the end of the second period. At the beginning of the third period, Saint Louis tried to make it a go scoring first, making it two to five, but Boston was too far gone ended up making two more goals before the end of the game, giving them a dominant victory seven to two and taking the series' lead two to one. In Game four, still in Saint Louis, the Blues definitely wanted a different game and they came out and scored forty three seconds into the game, but Boston was able to counter to tie the game up halfway through the first period, but the Blues were able to score a rist shot just before the end of the period, giving them the lead two to one. But Boston would come back, scoring the only goal in the second period, but the Blues would dominate the third period, scoring two goals, giving them the lead four to two and winning the game and tying the series two all. The next game would head back to Boston and each team would struggle to score it in the first period, but the Blues would come back. In fifty five seconds into the second period, Ryan O'Reilly would score a backhanded shot, giving them the lead, and they had kept the pressure on the Bruins, scoring a goal that did off the Bruins goalie, giving them the lead two to oh. Boston tried to fight back, making a goal just three minutes later, but it was not enough and the Blues pulled out another victory, giving them the lead three to two. But the Bruins weren't going to go down without a fight. In Game six, they came out strong, scoring the first goal on a power play, giving them the lead. They would go on to score the next two goals, going up three to zero, and they would not look back, finishing the game five to one, tying the series going into a Game seven, winner take all game. Whoever would win this game would hoist the Stanley Cup. The game was to be played at the Boston Garden, the home game for the Boston Bruins, and the first period was hard fought, but in the final few minutes of the first period, the Blues were able to score two goals, giving them a two zero lead, and they continue their success all the way into the third period, where they scored the first two goals, going up four to zero. Boston was able to eke out one goal in the closing minutes of the game, but it was too little, too late, and the Saint Louis Blues were playing Gloria as they had just won theirs first Stanley Cup. In local radio station Why ninety eight said if the Boston Bruins won the game, they would play the song Gloria for twenty four straight hours, which they did the following day, and Ryan O'Reilly, the team's leading scorer, won the kind Smythe Trophy for the most valuable Player in the playoffs that year and ever since, Gloria has been a staple for the Saint Louis Blues, similar to the Boston Red Sox who always play Sweet Caroline at their games, because sometimes music can really affect how sports can go, and it helped Shage. There's a fortune for the Saint Louis Blues because they were now longer blue anymore, as they were able to hoist their first Stanley Cup. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History, and I want to thank Glenn's sprinkle in Ben Bartlett for suggesting this topic. And if you would want us to do a topic for you, all you need to do is leave us a review wherever you're listening, or go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review there, give us your name and the topic you would like us to cover, and we will get that done just for you. And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.