Dickie Moore had the poor, misguided Blues player by the throat and slammed up against a wall almost before the sweater hit the dressing room floor.

He was about to teach a lesson the Blues still haven't forgotten.

"In Montreal, the crest, the sweater, has never hit the floor," one former player remembers Moore growling. "That's your life -- that crest.


"Respect it."

When Hall of Famer Bernie Federko's statue was unveiled this fall at Savvis Center, Federko recalled a similar event as Barclay Plager scolded a young player for letting the Blues' winged note crest settle on the floor. Respect the team, Federko said, was Plager's point -- the same one Plager saw Moore squeeze into a teammate.

But there's more to these moments of Blues history than just a regard for the Blue Note. There are hints of how the last of the franchises welcomed into the NHL's Second Six expansion of 1967-68 became the best by making three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup finals in its first three seasons.

How the Blues eventually captured St. Louis' attention and imagination ... and frustration.

Frustration, because despite early success, propped up by the league's quirky playoff structure, the Blues never won a game in the Stanley Cup finals. Still haven't. Despite the longest active stretch of postseason appearances in major professional sports -- a berth this season would be 25 consecutive years -- the Blues haven't been back to the finals since 1970.

They have played the most games of any NHL team, more than 3,000, without winning a Stanley Cup.

But, oh, the success.

Always followed by heartache.

The "Monday Night Miracle" is considered the greatest game in the Blues' history. On May 12, 1986, in Game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals, the team rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the final 11 minutes, 52 seconds to tie the Flames. Doug Wickenheiser scored in overtime to force a Game 7 of the Campbell Conference finals.

Post-Dispatch columnist Kevin Horrigan reported: "Now this unbelievable team, having won an unbelievable victory, is one victory away from the totally unbelievable -- the Stanley Cup finals."

Success!

Then the Blues lost Game 7 -- nicknamed the Wednesday Night Reality Check -- in Calgary. Heartache ...

The Blues won the 1999-2000 President's Trophy with a 51-20-11-1 record and 42 victories from goalie Roman Turek. Chris Pronger became the first defenseman since Bobby Orr to claim the league MVP (Hart Trophy) and the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman. Success!

The team promptly lost in the first round of the playoffs to San Jose. Heartache ...

Brett Hull reinvigorated the city's interest in hockey with 50 goals in the first 49 games of the 1990-91 season. He went on to score 86, and rinks around town reopened or were built to accommodate the boom in youth hockey that Hull single-handedly conjured up. He won the franchise's first Hart Trophy. Success!

Only to make an ugly departure as a free agent in 1998 and win Cups with rivals Dallas and Detroit. Heartache ...

The Cup is such a crusade that, more often, it keeps the Blues here.

"We went to finals three times, and I'm sitting here and working with the Blues because I still want a Stanley Cup, too," said Bobby Plager. "We all want to bring a Stanley Cup here because it's been long enough."

In June 1966, St. Louis' expansion franchise was the last of six awarded, edging out Baltimore. Sid Salomon Jr. and his hockey-mad son, Sid Salomon III, spent $2 million to get the Blues and bought the Arena from two other NHL owners (the Wirtzes of Chicago being one) to house the team.

On the recommendation of Boston Celtics head coach Red Auerbach, the Salomons hired Lynn Patrick to build the team. Patrick had made his NHL debut in St. Louis playing for the Rangers against the Eagles, St. Louis' short-lived first NHL team in the 1930s. Patrick then made the $15,000-a-year hire that made the Blues:

Scotty Bowman.

"Scotty was a winner," said Jimmy Roberts, the first skater the Blues took in the expansion draft. "I think, as a team, we just as well could have been losers as well as winners. He was the guy that made us a winner. He wouldn't let us go off the line, day or night. He was on us every day."

Bowman's and Patrick's scouting acumen was unparalleled as they built the Blues. They focused on defense -- like picking goaltender Glenn Hall, called "Mr. Goalie" still -- knowing the top skill was going to be guarded by the Original Six.

These were heady times for the Blues. Early in that inaugural 1967-68 season, "a cricket team might have well come to town," Roberts said because the crowds were scant. But on Jan. 27, the Blues defeated the New York Rangers, 4- 3.

That shocked St. Louis to attention -- taking hockey to more than just aficionados but to the masses. The Blues became a social event, the Arena an epicenter of culture. Less than two years later, 14,089 people attended a preseason "Hockey Clinic" that included a 20-minute game.

"It was a special group of guys in those early years," Roberts said. "The chemistry all kind of came together. Scotty was why. Scotty siphoned out a guy here, a guy there. He probably should have had his career here, but Scotty always had a Canadiens crest tattooed on him."

So Bowman got his start here, got married here, won the first three Western Conference titles as a coach, faced his hero, Canadiens coach Toe Blake, in one final and helped inject a Montreal-like pride into the Blues' foundation. Success!

But the first time the team didn't make the Stanley Cup finals, he was fired. Only to win a league-record 10 Cups elsewhere.

Heartache ...