Home : The First Twenty Years :

Red Berenson

Red Berenson (7) scores six against the Flyers in 1968.

Expansion's First Superstar

Way back when the Blues were striving for success and the NHL's Western (expansion) Division was struggling just to be taken seriously, the New York Rangers dealt center Gordon "Red" Berenson to St. Louis for winger Ron Stewart. The trade caused hardly a ripple. Those who did notice shook their heads and said the Blues had been taken. Red Berenson hadn't made it with the Canadiens. He hadn't made it with the Rangers. And there was little reason to believe that he would make it with St. Louis. The Blues, meantime, had given up a solid veteran in Ron Stewart.

A year later those same experts were still shaking their heads - but this time in wonderment. Not only had Berenson developed into the ace of the Blues, but he had become the first superstar of the Western Division. Magazine cover stories, reams of newspaper copy devoted to his exploits, and a catchy nick-name - "The Red Baron." Looking back on it, if any one individual made expansion hockey go in those early, precarious years, it was Red Berenson. And the Blues, of course, were the chief beneficiary.

What first marked Berenson for stardom was a six-goal game against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 7, 1968, at the Spectrum.

Early in every hockey season, scorers wonder if somewhere between May and October they might have lost their scoring touch. It was that way for Red Berenson. Berenson had led the expansion St. Louis Blues in scoring in 1967, their first NHL season, with a modest 22 goals. The next season, Berenson had three goals in the first month. "I had played well but was not scoring," he said. The Blues won a game in Detroit in early November and went on to Philadelphia for a game the next night against the Flyers.

Late in the first period, the Flyers and Blues were scoreless when Berenson swept into the Philadelphia zone, went around defenseman Ed Van Impe, circled the net and put a shot in the top corner behind goalie Doug Favell. "I said to myself, "Thank God, I can still score,'" Berenson said. "I hadn't exactly been on a roll." The game remained 1-0 until midway through the second period. Then Berenson scored at 10:26, 14:42, 15:14 and 19:35. Four goals in a period tied an NHL record. Four goals in nine minutes was unheard of, especially for a guy who never had scored more than seven in his first six seasons.

Red's Heroics Not Enough in Cup Finals Gordon "Red" Berenson (shown flipping a back-hander over the stick of Montreal goalie Gump Worsley), made the most of his first real chance to play in the NHL, leading the fledgling Blues in scoring (22 goals and 51 points) in 1967-68. His two goals in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals were wasted when Montreal's Bobby Rousseau scored early in sudden-death to give the Habs a 4-3 win en route to their four-game sweep.

"It's funny the way things happen sometimes," he said. "Some nights you can do no wrong and some nights nothing goes right. That night, every shot had something on it. Each of those goals came in 5-on-5 situations. There were no power plays, no shorthanded goals, no rebounds, no scrambles. The puck just kept coming to me. One goal was on a breakaway. Another was on a 3-on-2 rush."

In the locker room after two periods, the Blues were sitting on a 5-0 lead, all of the goals from Berenson. Defenseman Doug Harvey sauntered over to the center and offered an explanation. "You know," he said, "this would be a great game if you weren't playing."

In the third period, Berenson zeroed in on Favell again and hit the post with what might have been goal No. 6. "My stick cracked and I went to another one," he said. "It felt like a club." Berenson's wasn't the only broken stick that night. "Van Impe must have broken three of them over my arm," he said. Goals by Terry Crisp and Camille Henry 'on an assist by Berenson' made it 7-0. Then Berenson took one final shot, a slap shot from the top of the circle. "It was the best shot of my life," he said. "It took off and caught the top corner."

In the game's last minute, Philadelphia fans were chanting, "We want Red! We Want Red!" and Scotty Bowman, the Blues' coach, was urging Berenson to take one last shift. "It was unbelievable," Berenson said. Six goals in a game tied an NHL record, achieved six other times but just one since 1921. Darryl Sittler of Toronto is the only player since with six in a game.

His point production tailed off a bit the 1969-70 season. He had 33 goals and 39 assists. Still there was no reason to expect that Berenson would spin out the rest of his hockey career anywhere but in St. Louis.

On February 6, 1971, however, Berenson and Tim Ecclestone were dealt to the Red Wings for Garry Unger and Wayne Connelly. Berenson and Unger, of course, were the key figures in the trade. Fans in both cities were unhappy and a minor uproar ensued. Berenson departed with a blast at the Blues, claiming he'd been traded because he had been president of the NHL Players Association. That was denied. But Berenson wasn't convinced.

Berenson, Bob Plager, and Sabourin swarm in against the North Stars.

So, that should have ended it. St. Louis' love affair with the Red Baron should have been over. For the first hero of expansion was back in the bosom of the establishment.

Berenson spent almost four years with the Wings and never came close to duplicating his play with the Blues. Unger, meantime, became a star and one of the finest players in the NHL.

Finally, on December 30, 1974, Detroit gave up on the Red Baron. After 27 games of the 1974-75 season he had just three goals and three assists. Detroit dealt him back to St. Louis and received in exchange Phil Roberto and the Blues' third-round pick in the 1975 amateur draft. The headline in the Toronto Star told it all: BLUES-WINGS TRADE RETURNS BERENSON TO SCENE OF GLORY.

The Blues' Red Berenson in action in the 1970 All-Star Game.

If Berenson saw it that way, he played it, as usual, low key. "I was a bit surprised I was going to St. Louis," Berenson recalls. "I figured there were only two or three teams in the league that would take me. You know . . . with the age . . . the last year of my contract. Costs are high. Salaries are out of proportion or, at least, at their limit. And with expenses catching up and people not paying the ticket prices en masse as they did a few years ago . . . well, teams that feel they're not going to make the playoffs or aren't Stanley Cup contenders . . . they feel they don't have to afford a 35-year-old with a big salary when they can groom a younger, lower-paid player for the future."

Obviously the Blues thought otherwise. Was their faith in Berenson justified? Well, in the final weeks of the 1975-76 season, with the team driving to a date in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Coach Leo Boivin said: "Red Berenson is playing his best hockey of the season."

Berenson finished the campaign with 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points. Perhaps his energetic performance was helped by the fact that Boivin had named Berenson team captain, replacing Barclay Plager. "When Barc said he thought it would be better if he resigned, I decided to give the captaincy to Red," Boivin explained at the time. "He had been captain here before he was traded to Detroit and everyone tells me he did a good job and I'm sure he will again. I think he was pleased to be selected."

Berenson and Orr in the 1970 All-Star Game.

The Red Baron was home again at last.

Red Berenson played two seaons for the Regina Patricias, three with the U. of Michigan and then started his NHL career with Montreal in 1961-62, but made his mark during the 70's as a member of the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings.

During that decade, "The Red Baron" appeared in four all-star games, served as captain for both organizations, and ranked 2nd on the Blues all-time list for goals and points at the time of his retirement in 1978.

Following his retirement as a player after the 1977-78 season, Berenson remained in St. Louis as a member of the Blues’ coaching staff. After serving as an assistant coach for a year and a half, he took over as head coach with 56 games remaining in the 1979-80 season and posted a 27-20-9 record. The following year, Berenson was the NHL Coach of the Year after leading the Blues to a 45-18-17 record, the best mark in the first 28 years of the club’s history. The Jack Adams Award is awarded to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success, by the NHL Broadcasters' Association.

In August 1982, Berenson joined former St. Louis Blues coach Scotty Bowman on the Buffalo Sabres staff, serving as an assistant under Bowman until accepting the head coaching job at Michigan in 1984. Berenson has not lost touch with the NHL, presenting the 1989 Coach of the Year award to Pat Burns, then coach of the Montreal Canadiens, at the NHL Awards Banquet. He started coaching at U. of Michigan in 1984. Complete career and coaching stats from hockeydb.com.

top of page

back a page