Blues complete round-robin against Stars seeking first win, No. 3 seed

The St. Louis Blues, the top team in the Western Conference during the NHL regular season, will try to avoid falling to the No. 4 seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their Stanley Cup Qualifiers round-robin game against the Dallas Stars. on Sunday at Rogers Place in Edmonton (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN360, SN1).

St. Louis is the defending Stanley Cup champion and had a .662 points percentage, best in the West and second in the NHL to the Boston Bruins. The Blues lost round-robin games to the Colorado Avalanche (.657) and Vegas Golden Knights (.606) in Edmonton, the hub city for the West.

The winner of the Blues-Stars game on Sunday will be the No. 3 seed and play the Calgary Flames, the No. 6 seed, in the Western Conference First Round. The loser will play the Vancouver Canucks (No. 5).

Vegas defeated Colorado 3-2 in overtime on Saturday to earn the No. 1 seed. The Golden Knights will play the No. 8 seed Chicago Blackhawks in the first round, and the Avalanche, the No. 2 seed, will play the No. 7 seed Arizona Coyotes.

Blues forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas are expected to play after being ruled unfit for a 6-4 loss to the Golden Knights on Thursday.

"We haven't gotten to our game like we wanted to," St. Louis forward Zach Sanford said. "I think for [Sunday], that's our biggest focus, is just playing our game and going from there."

Dallas (.594) has not won a round-robin game and was shut out in a 4-0 loss to Colorado on Wednesday. The Stars were without goalie Ben Bishop and defenseman John Klingberg against the Avalanche, but coach Rick Bowness said "everyone is healthy" when asked about his lineup Saturday.

"We need to play a full 60-minute game [Sunday] with the way we know how to play," Bowness said. "If we do that, we're going to walk out of the rink feeling good about ourselves, regardless of what the outcome is. Clearly, we're playing to win and move up one spot in the conference, which we want. In order to do that, we have to play 60 minutes of Dallas Stars hockey, or 65 if necessary, and feel really good about ourselves."

The Bruins, who led the Eastern Conference with a .714 points percentage, lost 2-1 to the Washington Capitals on Sunday to finish the round-robin winless (0-3-0). They will be the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference First Round and will play the No. 5 seed Carolina Hurricanes.

The Capitals will be the No. 3 seed and play the New York Islanders, the No. 6 seed, in the first round.

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Saturday.to earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They will play the No. 8 seed Montreal Canadiens in the first round. The Lightning, the No. 2 seed in the East, will play the winner of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Columbus Blue Jackets Qualifiers series, with the deciding Game 5 to be played Sunday at Scotiabank Arena (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS, FS-O).

"Our guys are not in a bad place here, they're really not," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Saturday. "We want to win, we want to play better, we wanted to preserve the No. 1 seed. But we have a veteran group that knows what the ultimate goal is and what's at stake. They know that come Tuesday or Wednesday -- I assume we'll open one of those two days -- they know how to play playoff hockey.

"So as a coach, I haven't been around as long as they have, but I do know them pretty well, and I feel like we're trending in the right direction. I see energy in practice now the last couple of days, and I think that's just a little more clarity in our situation."