The St. Cody Bellinger Jersey . Louis Blues need to put a rough ending to the regular season behind them if they want to get past the defending Stanley Cup champions in the opening round of the playoffs. The struggling Blues hope to get back on track when they host the Chicago Blackhawks in Thursdays Game 1 encounter at Scottrade Center. Heading into the final week of the regular season, St. Louis was in the running to capture the Presidents Trophy as the leagues top point-earning team. Instead, an 0-6-0 skid knocked the Blues out of first place in the Central Division, where they finished a point behind the Colorado Avalanche to earn a much-tougher first-round matchup against a Chicago team that has won two of the last four Stanley Cup titles. St. Louis went 3-2-0 in the season series against the Blackhawks, with two of those wins coming in a shootout. Chicago, though, has won seven of the 10 all- time playoff series between the Central Division rivals. While this will mark the 11th all-time playoff series for these two clubs, they are meeting for the first time since the Blues ousted the Blackhawks in five games of the 2002 conference quarterfinals. The good news for St. Louis is that it is getting healthy. Vladimir Tarasenko is set to return while forwards David Backes, Vladimir Sobotka, Brenden Morrow and Patrik Berglund are considered questionable for the start of this series. T.J. Oshie has been ruled out for the game however. "Were going to have everyone back at some point in the first round," Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said on Wednesday. Ryan Miller was acquired from Buffalo at the trade deadline and enters this series as the No. 1 netminder for the Blues. St. Louis hopes Miller can help the club get out of the first round after it fell in six games to Los Angeles in the opening series last spring. Miller was 10-8-1 with a 2.47 goals against average and .903 save percentage in 19 starts with the Blues and is 25-22 lifetime in the postseason with a 2.47 GAA and .917 save percentage. That includes two deep runs with the Sabres in 2006 and 07. Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford didnt slow down after helping Chicago win the Cup a season ago as he went 32-16-10 with a 2.26 goals against average and .917 save percentage in 59 games, including 56 starts. Crawford is 21-15 with a 2.04 GAA in the postseason. Like the Blues, Chicago played the end of the regular season without some key players but the Blackhawks are as healthy as they can be since forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have been declared ready to go for Game 1. Kane missed the final 12 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury, while Toews sat out the last six with an upper-body issue. Toews, the team captain, won the Conn Smythe Trophy when Chicago won it all in 2010 and Kane claimed the playoff MVP award last spring. "Im excited to get things going," said the reigning Conn Smythe winner. "Ive watched a lot of hockey lately, so its going to be nice to play in some games now." The return of Kane and Toews bulks up Chicagos talented top-six that also includes Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and the up-and-coming Brandon Saad. Chicago won the Central Division last season in a lockout-shortened campaign and battled its way to a second Stanley Cup title in four years. The Blackhawks hope to become the first repeat champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-98. The Blues, who were 28-9-4 at home this season, will host Game 2 of this series on Saturday. Chicago was 19-14-8 on the road in 2013-14. Kenta Maeda Jersey . The time off didnt slow them down. Tyler Zeller scored a season-high 18 points and grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds, Kyrie Irving added 14 points and the Cavaliers pushed their winning streak to five games Tuesday night with a 114-85 victory over the skidding Philadelphia 76ers. Max Muncy Jersey . Under the deal, the Vikings will donate an undisclosed sum of money to five gay rights-related charities over the next five years. Kluwe said he wont receive any money as part of the settlement. "This will help a lot of people that really do need that help," Kluwe said. http://www.dodgerssale.com/dodgers-corey-seager-jersey/ . Louis Blues have returned to the top spot in the TSN.SAKHIR, Bahrain -- Mercedes further demonstrated its early-season dominance by outpacing its rivals in Fridays practice sessions for the Bahrain Grand Prix, indicating the team is well poised for a third straight win to start 2014. Lewis Hamilton followed up his victory last week in Malaysia by having the fastest time in both sessions, the second of which was held under lights for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit, which has switched to being a night race. Hamiltons time of 1 minute, 34.690 seconds was one third of a second faster than teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg, and more than a second faster than third-place Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. "The car feels better than when we were testing here -- balance-wise, it was extremely good," Hamilton said. "There are still some tweaks we need to make it feel perfect, but Im feeling good." Defending four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was a distant seventh on the timesheets, behind his fourth-place Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo -- who carries a 10-grid-place penalty into Sundays race. The pair was split by Felipe Massa of Williams and McLarens Jenson Button. Vettel, who was a competitive third in Malaysia, was downbeat aboout Red Bulls prospects of hanging on to the Mercedes coattails on Sunday. Joc Pederson Jersey. "They are very quick. It is not a surprise, they were very quick in the testing here. They have proved that again," Vettel said. "It will be a long way for us to catch up." Even more dispiriting for Mercedes rivals was that the dominance reflected by their lap times on lighter fuel and soft tires was even more pronounced when using higher fuel loads to practice for race conditions. Williams had a distinctly different approach to the days practice, doing relatively few laps to extend engine life, reckoning that it had all the data it needed about the Bahrain track after extensive preseason testing there. Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat was eighth fastest, ahead of McLarens Kevin Magnussen and Force Indias Sergio Perez. The night session, which began in falling desert temperatures at 6 p.m. local time -- the same as Sundays race -- saw many drivers struggling to get sufficient heat in the tires, misjudging braking distances and running off track. Max Chiltons Marussia went into a violent spin after a front brake failure, while Saubers Adrian Sutil and Caterhams Marcus Ericsson both had sudden power losses. ' ' '