Despite sitting near the bottom of their respective divisions, the Calgary Flames and New York Islanders will enter their game Thursday at Nassau Coliseum playing solid hockey recently.

The Flames had a five-game win streak snapped Tuesday in a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The Islanders have won two of their past three, including a 1-0 shutout of the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.

MONTREAL -- In what had to be categorized as a very relaxed John Tortorella press conference, the Vancouver Canucks coach told the media at Bell Centre after the morning skate Thursday that there was some good that came from his recent 15-day suspension.

Tortorella, who admits he still is familiarizing himself with the Canucks organization and players in his first season as coach, used his time away from the rink to focus more on individual players.

"There's no question because I wasn't involved in the day-to-day stuff I watched the games on TV and my video coach sent me all the stuff onto my computer," Tortorella said. "It gave me a lot more time to digest a lot of our concept. I spent more time on individual players because I couldn't be there working with them the next day or whatever it may be. So I filled my time that way, and it was a really interesting perspective for me because I've never been in this situation.

"It helped me, especially so early on with a new team and organization, I think understand some of the things with players and some of the things they're doing on the ice because I had more time to do it."

MONTREAL -- Although forward Henrik Sedin will miss the Vancouver Canucks' final two games before the Olympic break, and defenseman Dan Hamhuis will be out of the lineup Thursday with an undisclosed injury, the team will get two players back for their game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Forwards Chris Higgins and Brad Richardson, neither of whom dressed in a 3-1 loss at the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, will return. After the Canucks' morning skate Thursday, Higgins said he's happy to be back but looking forward more to helping his team snap a five-game losing streak.

"We're just looking for a win here and looking to gain some traction," Higgins said. "It's kind of spiraled for us here lately with injuries and what not so we have to find a way to win and hopefully put a couple of wins together. This is very important and we're focusing on [Thursday] but we'd like to get a couple because it's been difficult for us to put a string of wins together."

ST. LOUIS -- When David Warsofsky takes the ice Thursday for the Boston Bruins, he only can hope to help alleviate the void left by Zdeno Chara's absence.

Warsofsky will play in his fifth NHL game when the Bruins (36-16-3) face the St. Louis Blues (37-12-6) at Scottrade Center.

The Bruins will be without Chara for the final two games leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics because the Bruins captain and 2009 Norris Trophy winner has left for Russia and will be the flag bearer for Slovakia at the opening ceremony Friday.

"I don't think I can play that high, how many minutes he usually plays," Warsofsky said of Chara, who averages 24:57 of ice time per game. "I just want to play my game. The whole [defense] corps will have to step up. I'm looking forward to it."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild play their final game before the Olympic break Thursday against the Nashville Predators and the focus is squarely on not losing focus. The Predators are playing well of late and trail the Wild by eight points in the Western Conference wild-card standings.

Nashville has one more game before the break, Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks, to gain even more ground should they win Thursday.

"The way I look at it, they're probably approaching this game as their season," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "So we can't expect anything less than a playoff mentality from them. And that's the challenge that I presented to our players and said the exact same thing.

"They have another game after this. We have guys going to the Olympics, guys going on vacation. Can we be mentally tough enough to push those distractions aside and make sure that we bring the right focus, the right attitude into this game tonight?"

TAMPA -- If the Tampa Bay Lightning hear footsteps, it's simply because teams are sneaking up on them in the standings.

The Lightning return home to the Tampa Bay Times Forum after a four-game road trip when they were 1-3-0. Their opponents in their final two games heading into the Olympic break, the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday and the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, are seeking to close the gap and overtake them in the standings.

First it's the streaking Maple Leafs, who are on a 9-2-1 run to climb to within three points of the Lightning in the Atlantic Division.

NEW YORK -- The Edmonton Oilers arrived in New York for their lone game this season at Madison Square Garden with a little spring in their step. Winning four of the past five games will do that to a young team.

Hoping to finish strong as they close out a four-game road trip Thursday in New York and Friday against the New Jersey Devils before the Olympic break, the Oilers have shown improvement of late, and defenseman Justin Schultz has been a big part of that.

"He's been good. Justin has made some great strides this year," Oilers coach Dallas Eakins said after the morning skate. "He's a guy we're relying on heavily right now for minutes. We're able to play him those minutes because of his improved defensive play."

PHILADELPHIA -- Only once this season has the Colorado Avalanche gone more than two straight games without a win, a four-game stretch in December that saw three of the games end in overtime or a shootout.

That's why there wasn't a lot of worry around the Avalanche locker room Thursday ahead of their game against the Philadelphia Flyers, two days removed from one of their most lopsided defeats this season, a 5-1 loss at the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

"Just a bump in the road," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "It's one of those things. We're all professional. We just have to put it behind us. We've all dealt with big losses before and this is no different. … That's what's great about this sport, you get a chance two days later to regroup. We're looking forward to [the game Thursday]."

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk declared himself ready to go after the morning skate Thursday and will make his return to the lineup against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center.

Datsyuk, out the past 14 games with a knee injury, will play for the first time since the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic against the Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year's Day. Datsyuk will skate on a line with Darren Helm and Daniel Alfredsson.

"Sooner or later, I needed to start," Datsyuk said. "I waited enough. We'll see what happens tonight."

OTTAWA -- Chris Phillips will miss his sixth straight game when the Ottawa Senators play the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, and it doesn't look promising for the veteran defenseman to return Saturday for the Senators' final game before the NHL breaks for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Phillips, who is out with a lower-body injury, missed three games earlier this season. Chosen No. 1 by Ottawa in the 1996 NHL Draft, the 35-year-old missed a total of three games over the previous six seasons after a knee injury sidelined him for the final 11 games of 2005-06.

"He doesn't miss games," Senators captain Jason Spezza said. "It was surprising not to see him on the plane the other day. You know when [Phillips] misses games that he's really hurt. He's a guy that's always been a professional and always showed up and played through a lot of injuries."