NHL roundup: Maurice likes youthful Jets
New Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice sees a lot of similarities between his team and the young Edmonton Oilers.
Youthful Jets
Both teams have youth and speed, but they need to work on the disciplined aspects of the game.
"We're two really young teams that have to learn the hard lessons," Maurice said Friday, a day before the Oilers and Jets were set to meet at the MTS Centre. "It's how do we get our teams to like the hard parts of this game, so we're in the exact same spot."
The Jets have won their last two games under the former Spits coach, outscoring their opponents 10-3 in the process, while Edmonton is on a three-game losing streak.
"The thing our team does best, our speed, I think we're using it to our advantage," said Jets forward Blake Wheeler, who has five points in his last five games.
"It's allowing us to play with the puck a lot more. When we play with the puck it creates a lot of energy within your team, a lot of scoring chances, you seem to control the play a little more and things just follow suit from there."
Surging Sens
The Ottawa Senators have been playing their best hockey of the season of late, but it still hasn't been enough to get them in the playoff picture.
The Senators have gone 7-1-2 in their last ten games, but as of Friday remained one point back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
On Saturday the Senators take on the New York Rangers who have gone 7-2-1 in their last ten to sit sixth overall in the Eastern Conference.
With 53 points the Rangers have a two-point lead on the Senators, but Ottawa has a game in hand.
"They're playing equally as good as we are right now," said Senators captain Jason Spezza.
"They're not allowing very many chances against and they're a team we're going to be battling with down the stretch. We don't need to scoreboard watch to know they're a team we're battling with. We know it's an important four-point game."
Steen activated
The St. Louis Blues have activated forward Alexander Steen from injured reserve and say the team's leading goal scorer will be available for Saturday's home game against league-leading Anaheim.
Steen has missed 11 games with a concussion, which slowed down a career season for the forward. He has already tied a career high with 24 goals, and his 39 points in 35 games are second on the Blues behind T.J. Oshie (40).
In nine NHL seasons Steen has totalled 147 goals, 194 assists and 248 penalty minutes in 572 career games with St. Louis and Toronto.
The Blues will be in Detroit Monday (7:30 p.m., FSN, live blog at windsorstar.com).
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