Former Shark and current Senators winger Fabian Zetterlund has some ideas about how to shut down the red-hot Macklin Celebrini, but he’s not going to share them with the public ahead of his return to San Jose on Saturday night.
“I know how, but I will just tell the other guys that on our team,” said Zetterlund with a laugh when posed the question after Friday’s optional skate.
The 26-year-old winger was acquired by the Senators leading up to last year’s trade deadline in return for Zack Ostapchuk, Noah Gregor, and a second-round pick.
He broke out as a scorer in San Jose, scoring 41 goals over 146 games in his final two seasons (a 23-goal pace over a full season) after going scoreless in his first 22 games with the team after the 2022–23 trade deadline.
Zetterlund is still waiting for that offence to break through in Ottawa like it did in San Jose, but it’s not for a lack of effort. He ranks third on the team with 35 hits through 20 games, an example of his dogged forechecking ability. Zetterlund admits he obviously would like to score more, but is focused on what matters: helping the team win games.
“I just want to go out there and play my game, and if I do that right, I know everything will come," said the winger. "I’m not panicking or anything, we still get the wins, and I try to do my best out there to help the team win games. That’s my main focus and everything else will come.”
Indeed, the Senators have been playing good defensive hockey as of late, which has helped them pick up wins and points. That comes during a stretch where the team has finished the game with five defencemen three out of the past four games, with Nick Jensen, Thomas Chabot, and most recently, Nikolas Matinpalo exiting the game with injuries.
That has thrust the defensive pairing of Jordan Spence and Tyler Kleven in particular into bigger situations and more minutes as of late. The pair have excelled together, with the Sens outshooting opponents 57-36 and outscoring opponents 4-2 at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick when they are on the ice.
“He’s a fun player to play with, he moves the puck really well, gets up in the rush,” said Kleven about Spence.
“I think that we’ve been learning to have a little bit more chemistry in the O-zone as games go on here, and in the D-zone too we’re talking more. It takes time to understand how other players play, especially as a defenceman, but I think that the time we’ve spent together, we’re growing, and I think we’re getting better every game.”
