In Missouri, The St. Louis Blues’ Surge Is Just The Tip Of The Hockey Iceberg

Missouri is known as the Show-Me State. Right now, the region is showing off its passion for hockey on multiple platforms. At the NHL level, the St. Louis Blues are on a seven-game winning streak as they push for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This weekend, the PWHL’s Takeover Tour is touching down at Enterprise Center. Then, St. Louis will play host the NCAA Frozen Four on April 10 and 12.

After sitting eight points out of a wild-card spot at the NHL’s break for the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February, the Blues have ridden a record of 13-2-2 into the second wild-card spot. With nine games remaining, they’ve got a four-point cushion over the Calgary Flames and are now just two points back of the Minnesota Wild.

That’s impressive work for a team that had been rumored to be exploring a change of scenery for its captain, Brayden Schenn, ahead of the Mar. 7 deadline — and which hadn’t seen immediate returns after snapping up head coach Jim Montgomery when he was fired by the Boston Bruins in late November.

Since Feb. 22, the Blues are first in the NHL in wins (13), points (28), points percentage (.824), goals for (69) and goals per game (4.06), third goals against per game (2.18) and fourth in expected goals share at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick (54.97 percent).

This isn’t the first time that the Blues have seemingly risen from the dead. In 2018-19, they went from last place in the league to their first Stanley Cup championship, a win that amplified longstanding efforts to support and grow the game in a city that has boasted a proud and loyal fanbase since the Blues joined the NHL back in 1967.

When Chris Zimmerman signed on as the Blues’ president and CEO in 2014, his mission was to further develop the region’s the hockey culture and accessibility by building off roots that had already been established.

“The foundation of what’s going on here was the strength of the Blues’ alumni,” he said. “We and the Blues’ alumni take great pride that it’s absolutely one of the strongest alumni groups in the NHL.”

A decade ago, former Blues Keith Tkachuk, Al MacInnis and Jeff Brown were on the ice with the next generation. Their mentorship led to five St. Louis-area players being drafted in the first round of the 2016 NHL draft, led by Keith’s son Matthew Tkachuk at No. 6.

Clayton Keller, who is now the captain of the Utah Hockey Club, also grew up in the area and played on those teams. He was drafted one spot behind Tkachuk in 2016, at No. 7, and currently sits fourth in his draft class with 496 points in 590 career NHL games.

“There’s more people involved as well, but I think all the credit goes to them for everything that they did for us, and we were just super thankful,” he said. “Looking back, I think all of us realize just how special of a coaching staff and team and everything that it was.”

Ottawa Charge defensder Jincy Roese, then known as Jincy Dunne, went from growing up in a hockey-mad family in the St. Louis area to a spot on Team USA at the 2025 Winter Olympics. Early on, she got an important boost from the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman MacInnis.

“He actually reached out to the men’s coach for me and said, ‘Hey, I think you should give this girl a shot,’” Roese recalled. “I think without that, my career would have been on a totally different trajectory, because those years were so pivotal for my development. He got me a foot in the door to join the boys team.”

When Zimmerman arrived in 2014, one of the first items on his to-do list was getting a plan in place to replace a privately-owned three-sheet ice rink in Chesterfield that was expected to be closing.

In 2016, Zimmerman announced that the Blues had entered into a public-private partnership on a new $83-million facility which is home to four NHL-sized ice rinks and a host of other amenities. The Centene Community Ice Center opened in September of 2019, three months after the Blues’ Cup win. It now serves as the Blues’ practice facility and is home to the Lindenwood University hockey program as well as the St. Louis Blues AAA program and the St. Louis Lady Cyclones.

In 2022, 2024 and 2025, the center also served as the hub for the national championships for the ACHA, which oversees all non-NCAA collegiate hockey across the U.S. It’s an enormous undertaking: the 2025 edition featured 82 teams across three men’s and two women’s divisions. The tournament is now set to return to St. Louis for the next three years.

With better infrastructure comes greater opportunity. USA Hockey’s registration numbers illustrate the growth of the sport in the region. In the 2013-14 season, 7,162 players were registered in the state of Missouri. By 2023-24, that number had spiked to 11,244 — an increase of more than 56 percent during a time when the national growth rate came in at just over eight percent.

The PWHL has become an important touchpoint for the next generation of girls hockey. Roese pays it forward by running a girls camp in St. Louis every summer, and has seen how the progression of the women’s game has helped support her younger sister Joy Dunne and her Ohio State Buckeyes teammate Makenna Webster, who also hails from the region.

In two weeks’ time, the NCAA’s top mens’ players will convene on Enterprise Center as St. Louis plays host to the men’s Frozen Four for the first time since 2007.

This weekend, the PWHL mounts the last stop of the nine-city Takeover Tour, with Roese’s Charge taking on the Boston Fleet and both teams hosting multiple events.

The game takes place Saturday at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET). The Charge will host an open practice, girls hockey clinic and autograph session on Thursday starting at 5:30 p.m. CT, then the Fleet will host their open practice on Friday starting at 1:15 p.m. CT, with a youth hockey clinic and autograph session to follow.

The St. Louis Blues will continue their push for the playoffs on Thursday in Nashville (8 p.m. ET) and Saturday in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche (4:30 p.m. ET).