NHL
Former Blues player Kelly Chase got to spend time with many admirers at the team's 'Hockey Fights Cancer' night on Monday. Jeremy Rutherford / The Athletic
ST. LOUIS — It was ‘Hockey Fights Cancer’ night at Enterprise Center Monday, and Kelly Chase, the St. Louis Blues legend who is battling leukemia, was in attendance.
In the first period of the Blues’ game against the Nashville Predators, Chase was scheduled to say a few words to the crowd following the second TV timeout. He was handed a microphone and waited for the next stoppage in play.
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The whistle that led to that stoppage wasn’t an icing. It wasn’t a save by a goalie. It was a fight between Blues captain Brayden Schenn and Nashville’s Nicolas Hague, who is 6 feet 6, 245 pounds.
Was it a case of Schenn paying homage to Chase, who was one of the toughest fighters in franchise history? He wasn’t available to answer that question after the Blues’ 5-2 loss to the Predators, but others believe it was.
“You know what, ‘Schenner’ is a great character guy,” said former Blues defenseman Garth Butcher, who was known to throw his fists back in the day, too. “I think Schenner might’ve done that for Chaser because he knew Chaser would love that.”
“I guarantee you Schenner knew that (Chase was getting ready to be honored),” said Blues TV analyst Joey Vitale. “He’s just a player that understands the moment, understands the night. He goes up against a guy that’s five inches taller and 45 pounds heavier — pretty amazing!”
As both teams went to their respective benches for the TV timeout, Chase’s microphone was turned on.
“First of all, attaboy Schenner!” he said.
Chase was wearing a purple ‘Hockey Fights Cancer’ T-shirt that said he fights for “Every buddy!” He was standing next to Butcher, who wore a shirt that said he fights for “Chaser.” Also on stage were Blues’ Hall of Famer Bernie Federko and Dr. Ramzi Abboud, Chase’s physician at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.
When Chase started to speak, his eyes, out of which he couldn’t see for six days recently because of his condition, began to tear up. And as his words came out, the 18,096 fans began to stand.
“I don’t like getting emotional, but it’s hard not to,” he said. “Everybody out there has got somebody that’s affected by it and some have had it harder than others. I can look at myself and go, ‘Enough is enough! Could I get a win here, please?’ But then, I get a standing ovation because everybody is grateful that you’re fighting for them. I don’t know why, but I feel an obligation to get better.”
Chase, 58, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in November 2023, and he received a life-saving stem cell (bone marrow) transplant from his brother, Kyle, in December 2024.
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Today, Chase’s leukemia is in remission, but he’s still receiving chemotherapy treatment. He has GVHD (graft-versus-host disease), which is a serious complication that can occur after an allogeneic stem-cell transplant in which a donor’s immune cells (graft) attack the recipient’s body (host).
“So my enzymes are fighting with my donor, and it’s in my brain and my brain fluid,” he said. “Rarely does it go by the brain stem, and it did. So I’ve got it in there, and I’ve just got to continue to fight to try and get it out of me.
“It’s like having eczema on the inside of your body and it’s got to fight it’s way out, and right now it’s fighting it’s way out through my throat, my hearing and my eyes. It’s painful, man, just painful.”
The leukemia was on Chase’s optic nerve, and less than two weeks ago, he lost 75 percent of his vision in his right eye.
“It’s tough because you lose part of your sight and you’re like, ‘OK, I can live with it,’” he said. “But then when I lost it completely, it scared the hell out of me. I mean, I cried for three days.”
Chase’s sight improved a little day by day, but there’s scarring on the cornea that’s terribly painful and exasperates his headaches.
“There’s no pain like the pain of a headache from this,” he said. “In the hospital, it’s fine because they can give me instant relief. But at home, you’ve got to take some other kind of drug that calms the headaches, and that could take 45 minutes to an hour. You’re in a dark room, you’re literally holding your head and you’re crying. I’m not too proud to say it.”
Asked how he’s dealing with it all, Chase replied: “I’m OK. I’m fighting this. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I feel good that it’s going to stay away.”
Butcher now lives in Bellingham, WA., and has been meaning to get back to St. Louis for a while to see his good friend, but Chase kept telling him “no.”
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“Chaser being Chaser, he doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him,” Butcher said. “But eventually my wife said, ‘Stop asking him and just tell him that you’re coming!’”
Butcher arrived on Friday and was only supposed to stay a couple of days, but after seeing Chase, he decided to stay longer.
“I love the guy,” Butcher said. “I respect everything he stands for and, if anybody can beat this, it’ll be him. The city of St. Louis, that ovation they gave him, they know what they’ve got in a guy like Chaser. I don’t like crying in public, but I’m an emotional guy, and you can tell by looking at me know that I’m still feeling it.”
Chase was walking through a hallway out to the concourse after his appearance when suddenly there was a young girl sprinting toward him.
It was Laila Anderson, a young fan who became an inspiration to the Blues and the city as she battled a rare autoimmune disease during the team’s 2019 run to the Stanley Cup.
Anderson, now 17, and Chase shared a long hug, and the two carried on a conversation throughout the embrace.
“I walked around the corner, waited, and then we just locked eyes,” Anderson, now 17, said.
Well, at least one of them locked eyes right away.
“She had to get right in front of me so I could see her,” Chase said.
The first words out of Anderson’s mouth were “Are you OK?”
“Chaser does this thing where he won’t always tell me the truth to protect me, but I think I’m emotionally mature enough,” Anderson said.
“She keeps saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’” Chase said. “I said, ‘I’m going to be OK. She said, ‘Are you?’ I said, ‘I promise.’ She goes, ‘I love you.’ I said, ‘I know you do.’”
“He promised me that he’ll be OK,” Anderson said.
“It was emotional,” Chase said.
“Chaser means so much to me,” Anderson said. “I grew up such a big fan of his, and he was always my hero. Then he came to the hospital during my darkest times and told me that I was part of the ‘tough-guy club.’ That really pulled me together.
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“It’s really sad, the place he’s in right now, but he’s such a fighter. I have chills seeing him, and tonight was what my heart needed. I love him so much and being able to give him a hug meant everything to me.”
Anderson wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
As Chase made his way to the TV broadcast area, putting drops into his eyes, he passed by fans who pulled for him as a player, and now again in this fight.
Scott Riggs, 62, spotted Chase and said: “God Bless you! You signed an autograph for my daughter. You are her favorite player. God Bless you, man!”
“Thank you!” Chase responded.
He then sat down in a familiar seat alongside Blues’ TV play-by-play man, Chris Kerber, who was his partner on the team’s radio broadcast for 18 years. He joined Kerber and analyst Vitale, his replacement in 2018, for the end of the first period of Monday’s game.
“Kelly Chase just walked up in the booth,” Vitale noted for the viewers.
“Once again, you know how to take a mic in front of 18,000 people,” Kerber told Chase, referencing his comments on stage.
“I didn’t take it — Schenner did,” Chase said, pointing back to the fight with Hague.
Then the conversation got a little emotional.
“How are you doing, buddy?” Kerber asked.
“I’m doing good,” Chase answered.
A couple of minutes together on the air felt just like the old days.
“With ‘Kerbs,’ there’s never going to be a sign of nothing but loyalty — from me to him and him to me,” Chase said. “He truly is like one of my teammates.”
Kerber, meanwhile, had to pause while talking to Chase to stop himself from choking up.
“We text regularly,” he said. “The way he’s fought this, I’ve got to be honest, it’s legendary. He’s giving all the credit to his doctors and to Siteman and he just continues to put other people first. He’s got the biggest heart you can imagine, and when that things pumps, it’s just pumping more blue blood.
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“Blues fans keep him going. Talking hockey keeps him going. Guys like Garth coming to town keeps him going. The Ice Guardians podcast is keeping him going. ‘Hullie’ (Brett Hull) is keeping him going. Even while he’s fighting this battle, what’s he doing? He’s raising over $1.5 million. He’s auctioning off a Lamborghini. That’s Chaser.”
As for Vitale, Chase said: “Joey’s always been great. That’s not an easy transition. It’s not an easy transition because A) he never played for the Blues, and B) because he’s following up me. I know I was popular in this city, and I’m grateful for that because I was not a good player. But I’ve always wanted to support Joey.”
Vitale, 40, grew up in St. Louis and played parts of six seasons in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes. But he certainly remembers those days watching Chase with the Blues.
“He’s just a warrior,” Vitale said. “People say hockey players are brave, and it’s a tough sport. But what he did in his position was the toughest. It was an incredible career, and to think those were even the toughest fights he was ever going to have to face in his life. It’s truly remarkable, and it’s an honor and a privilege to know him. Not only that, but to take his spot in this booth, it’s been pretty cool.”
The night was about a lot of people affected by the disease — from a youngster who read the starting lineups, to another who sang the national anthem, to another who dropped the ceremonial first puck.
Then when the game began, the Blues captain may have intentionally put the focus on another.
“Schenner is one of the guys that’s old school and never forgets,” Chase said. “He’s one of the guys that’s come to the hospital 50 times to visit me in three years. You never forget stuff like that. This kid, he’s old school.”
Chase won’t forget Monday, either.
“When you see a little girl (Laila) come up crying, it’s another reason to stop whining,” he said. “Look, I lost my sight for six days — pretty humbling. You get led by the hand of a caregiver; they feed you, take you to the bathroom, shower.
“I’m used to running at the fight and I had to have somebody hold my hand. There were days two weeks ago, I was really, emotionally in a bad spot. I don’t know, man. I just have a different perspective on things.”
Jeremy Rutherford is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the St. Louis Blues. He has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is the author of “Bernie Federko: My Blues Note” and “100 Things Blues Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” In addition, he is the Blues Insider for 101 ESPN in St. Louis. Follow Jeremy on Twitter @jprutherford
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