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Defending champion Blues brace for Canucks

The St. Louis Blues will begin their Stanley Cup title defense against the Vancouver Canucks when their first-round playoff series begins Wednesday night in Edmonton.

The Blues lost all three of their round-robin postseason games to fall into the No. 4 Western Conference playoff seed.

The Canucks earned the No. 5 seed by beating the Minnesota Wild three games to one in their best-of-five qualifying series.

"There's no secret the way St. Louis plays and the strength of their team," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "Any time you win a Stanley Cup, you can win in a bunch of different ways.