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“They’ve got a few guys over there that are electric if you give them too much space,” Steen said, to a question about facing Benn who, like Kane, is a Hart Trophy finalist.

“I think we’ve done a good job of staying on top of them, getting in their way, making them stop, having to get going from a standstill all the time.”

“(Steen) has the rare combination of hockey sense and compete,” Hitchcock said Sunday, a day of rest for his team prior to Monday night’s Game 6. “His hockey sense is through the roof. He’s obviously his father’s son.

“As a coach, there’s a lot of things that go on during the game … when you look back at it on the tape, you see all the little things that take you years to teach that he does naturally: angles, stick positioning, feet positioning, being able to read, trap two forecheckers …. And then he’s a fierce competitor, it’s a great quality. It’s what makes him a special player. I’ve said this before, if he stays healthy, to me he’s close to a lock to win the Selke (Trophy)” as the league’s top defensive forward.

Hitchcock said that when Thomas Steen was playing, “I was watching and cheering for the Oilers. I didn’t like his dad very much. He was really, really competitive at the puck and he would do anything to win.”

Opponents don’t much like playing against Alex, either.

And an interview with him is like a fencing match. He doesn’t like talking about himself, although now and then he can get off a good line, like after teammate Kevin Shattenkirk accidentally clipped him in the mouth, knocking out the teeth, and Steen surprised reporters by saying he would no longer answer questions that required the letter ‘S.’