EDMONTON, Alberta _ Not even a players-only meeting Friday helped. The Blues remain 0-for-Edmonton, losing to Dallas 2-1 in a shootout Sunday afternoon at Roger Place. Denis Gurianov scored the shootout winner.
The Blues thus finish round-robin play with an 0-3 record and the fourth seed throughout the playoffs in the Western Conference. The Blues finished 71 games and more than five months of play as the top team in the West. In eight days in Edmonton, they have gone from the No. 1 seed to No. 4.
Hardly a fair setup. But at this point, it doesn't really matter. They will face No. 7 seed Vancouver in the Round of 16. The "tune-up" phase of the postseason is over. The real stuff starts this week for St. Louis best-of-seven elimination hockey; winner advances, loser goes home.
The Blues went 1-1-1 against Vancouver in the regular season, with two of those contests played on the road. And they needed overtime in their only win, 2-1 on Nov. 5 in Vancouver.
Dallas, meanwhile, entered as the No. 4 seed and leaves the round-robin as No. 3 after going 1-2. Including an exhibition loss here, the Stars had lost nine in a row dating back to the regular season. They open with Calgary.
