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“I texted my friend that that was No. 1 — ahead of North Dakota — for feeling the energy on the ice,” Stecher said Thursday morning. “I came in with the mentality to not try and save the world and just make sure I played simple and hard — especially as a young guy.

“When you’re scratched (Monday against the Islanders), it’s easy to press too hard to just and try and make an impression. And I don’t want to get complacent. I want to make a career of this and not just have a cup of coffee and call it quits. It’s a business, and I don’t want to take anything for granted.”

Stecher will play his sixth game of the season tonight and Philip Larsen will sit for the second straight game. That says something about the rookie. Stecher, 22, will face a formidable task in shutting down two of the league’s better speedsters in Dylan Larkin and Darren Helm.

“I have to use my feet and have a good, tight gap to eliminate time and space because that’s where they can gain their speed,” said Stecher. “(Mike) Hoffman in Ottawa is pretty fast and that was a good test, and I thought I handled him pretty well.”

Desjardins knows what he’s going to get from Stecher. There’s no mystery.

“It’s habits and he has them to fall back on when things are going the way he wants,” said the coach. “He never really puts himself in a bad spot. He’s pretty smart how he defends and good at moving pucks offensively and has won himself a bit of a spot there.”

ONE LAST GOOD HENRIK ODE TO THE JOE

Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Dan Cloutier have fond memories of Joe Louis Arena.