“After the game, I go in the bathroom,” Plager recalled. “Bob Hope walked in. Everything was blue that day, and we had blue water in the bathrooms when you flushed the toilet or the urinals.”

So there they were, Plager and the great comedian standing side-by-side at the urinals.

“I said, ‘Look at this. The water’s blue here,’ “ Plager said. “And he goes, ‘Oh, thank God you told me. I thought it was me.’”

Keenan doesn’t remember any of the celebrities or hoopla, but he does remember the rush to spruce up The Arena for opening night.

“We were practicing in there when the construction was going on to renovate the arena,” Keenan said. “Carpenters and painters and all that. It was pretty comical — they’re working while we were practicing. Their bosses would get on their rear end because they were watching us instead of doing the work.”

It was with great pride, Plager said, that the expansion Blues stood for the national anthem on opening night against the Minnesota North Stars.