Hockey Sense

Hockey Sense is a St. Louis hockey show with its skates planted firmly in Blues territory. It follows the team through coaching changes, draft weekends, free agency questions, roster competition, and the uneven work of trying to climb back toward the playoffs. The register is direct and conversational. It sounds less like a polished national panel and more like a familiar Friday stop on local sports radio. Andy Strickland is the featured voice, moving between team evaluation, live guest conversations, and sponsor-driven local color. The show pays close attention to the people around the Blues bench. Drew Bannister’s head-coaching role, Claude Julien joining the staff, Steve Ott’s promotion, and questions about veteran players versus younger players all sit naturally inside its frame. There is also a practical side. Youth hockey comes up through discussions of spring tryouts, Blue Note Cup timing, skating schedules, and the value of taking a short break after the season. That makes the show useful beyond NHL standings talk. Parents, players, and local hockey families can hear their own routines reflected back. The show’s energy is openly St. Louis. Local businesses, patios, holiday traditions, sports cards, credit unions, and brewery plugs are not tucked away; they are part of the broadcast texture. At times, the sponsor reads take up real space. For listeners who want only compressed analysis, that may feel loose. For Blues fans who like their hockey talk wrapped in community names and radio familiarity, it is part of the appeal. Hockey Sense also reaches beyond the immediate week when guests reflect on bigger career moments, family gatherings, Hall of Fame ceremonies, or the emotional pull of the Stanley Cup. The show is strongest when it connects team mechanics to lived hockey culture. It is opinionated without turning abstract. It is local without ignoring the NHL around it. Above all, Hockey Sense is built for people who want the Blues discussed as both a team and a St. Louis institution.