Zetterlund's 'Pinch Me' Moment in the NHL | PODCAST

Devils rookie Fabian Zetterlund may have grown up in Karlstad, Sweden, but his hockey idol was a Russian. That would be Washington's Alexander Ovechkin.
"Until I was 17, I looked exactly like Ovechkin," he told the Speak of the Devils podcast. "Everything was like him, yellow laces, tape job like him, his curve, too. I watched him a lot. He's a really, really good goal scorer and I liked that."
So, it was a "pinch me" moment when Zetterlund, 22, suited up for the Devils in a preseason game earlier this year against the Washington Capitals. And he looked across the ice to see his boyhood idol.
"In the warmup he was stretching, and I was like, 'wow, this is real,'" Zetterlund said. "Then I was standing beside him on the face off and I was like, I have to touch him or something. That was a special feeling."

Ovechkin is arguably the most prolific goal scorer in NHL history, and could break Wayne Gretzky's league record for career goals scored. And since Zetterlund copied everything that Ovechkin did, goal scoring had to be a part of his game.
"I've always been a shooter, but not always hitting the net," he laughed. "You have to find the confidence in your game. When you have that, it's automatic. The puck is there, and you shoot it and it goes in. It's a good feeling. I love to score goals."
Zetterlund had that "good feeling" 24 times with Utica of the American Hockey League ths season to lead the club. But last Tuesday, he had his first experience of that at the NHL level.
Zetterlund, the club's third-round pick (63rd overall) in 2017, was skating up ice with captain Nico Hischier on a 2-on-1 against the Arizona Coyotes. Hischier fed a pass across. Zetterlund collected and sniped it for his first-career NHL goal.
"It was an amazing feeling in my whole body when I saw it went in," he grinned. "When I saw it go in, I was really happy."
Here are some other topics discussed in the podcast…
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Fabian Zetterlund | Speak of the Devils