Bracket Challenge: Best Blues Moments of the 2000s

A lot has happened to the St. Louis Blues since Y2K, and we’d like you to tell us which moments gave you the biggest chills.

Welcome to the FOX Sports Midwest Blues Bracket Challenge, where you vote, March Madness bracket-style, on the top Blues moments of the 2000s.

Starting Tuesday, March 31, we’ll roll out multiple matchups each day — four opening round games Tuesday, four more Wednesday, four quarterfinal games Thursday, two semifinal games Friday and the championship match on Saturday, April 4. Voting will conducted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Here’s a written reminder of what made each moment in our Sweet Sixteen bracket special:

#1 seed: Stanley Cup champs, June 12, 2019. It took only a bit more than half a century, but when the Blues beat the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last summer, man, was it ever worth the wait.

#16 seed: Blues reach Western Conference Finals, May 3, 2001. The Blues swept the Dallas Stars to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1986 before losing to Colorado.

#8 seed: T.J. Oshie goal vs. Vancouver, March 26, 2009. Oshie skated through the Canucks defense before eventually faking goalie Roberto Luongo off his feet and shooting from the right slot into an open net.

#9 seed: Vladimir Tarasenko goal vs. New York Rangers, Nov. 3, 2014. Tarasenko took the pass at the red line, skated around one Rangers defender, split two more, made a sick move on goalie Cam Talbot in front of the net and tucked it in one-handed.

#4 seed: Blues erase 5-0 third-period deficit in win at Toronto, Nov. 29, 2000. The Blues were down 5-0 with 15:09 to play in the third period when Chris Pronger made the first of five unanswered St. Louis goals — the last by Alexander Khavanov with 25 seconds left — to force overtime, where Jochen Hecht won it.

#13 seed: Alexander Steen‘s short-handed overtime goal beats Kings in playoffs, April 30, 2013. The Kings had a man advantage in overtime when Steen stole the puck from goalie Jonathan Quick behind the goal and wrapped it into an empty net to give the Blues a first-round Game 1 win.

#5 seed: Troy Brouwer Game 7-winning goal vs. Chicago in playoffs, April 25, 2016. Brouwer hit the post, then put the rebound in the net midway through the third period to give the Blues a 3-2 win over the rival Blackhawks in a first-round series.

#12 seed: #RoarBacon game, Nov. 4, 2015. After the Blues tied a game in Chicago with three consecutive goals in the second period, the Blues posted a graphic on their Instagram account in which they meant to say the Blues “roar back” but, thanks to autocorrect, it became “roar bacon” in the social post. When a Tarasenko overtime goal gave the Blues the win, #RoarBacon became a trending topic.

#2 seed: Patrick Maroon Game 7-winning goal vs. Dallas in playoffs, May 7, 2019. Maroon became a hometown hero when he netted the game-winning goal in double overtime to vanquish the Stars and send the Blues to the conference finals.

#15 seed: Keith Tkachuk’s 500th career NHL goal, April 6, 2008. The Blues were short-handed even before the Blue Jackets pulled their goalie and then Big Walt fired the puck from well behind his own blue line into an empty Columbus net for his 500th NHL goal in the 2008 season finale.

#7 seed: Blues win 11th straight game, Feb. 19, 2019. A key to the Blues’ Stanley Cup championship season was a franchise-record 11-game win streak in January-February that culminated with a 3-2 win over the Maple Leafs.

#10 seed: Jordan Binnington earns shutout in first NHL start, Jan. 7, 2019. Little did Blues fans know that the rookie goalie fresh from the AHL would blank the Flyers 3-0 in his first NHL start and become critical to an unlikely run to the Stanley Cup championship.

#3 seed: Blues win Game 2 of 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, May 29, 2019. The Blues had been swept in each of three previous trips to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost Game 1 of the 2019 playoffs in Boston, so a 3-2 overtime win on a Carl Gunnarsson goal gave the franchise its first-ever Finals win.

#14 seed: Blues rally to beat Jets in Game 5, April 18, 2019. The Blues were down 2-0 in the third period at Winnipeg before Ryan O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz scored to lead the Blues to an unlikely Game 5 victory, tying a first-round series they won two nights later.

#6 seed: Tom Stillman buys Blues, May 2012. The Blues had been on the market for two years and rumored to be headed for relocation or bankruptcy when Stillman led a group of local investors who bought the team from Dave Checketts and kept the team in St. Louis.

#11 seed: Blues win Presidents’ Trophy, April 2000. The Blues finished the season with 114 points, nine points more than second-place Philadelphia, to finish atop the league standings for the only time in franchise history.