Why Detroit Red Wings' Alex DeBrincat could only laugh when talking about Senators fans

Alex DeBrincat laughed and conceded he doesn't expect a warm welcome from his former team's fans.

The Detroit Red Wings play at Ottawa on Saturday (1 p.m., BSD), a game that is personal for DeBrincat and pointedly significant for the Wings, who are trying to keep a three-game winning streak rolling.

DeBrincat spent last season playing for the Senators, and the fact he did not want to re-sign there forced the Senators to seek a trade partner. That worked out for the Wings, who found the goal scorer they craved.

But no team's fans like to hear a player doesn't want to stay, and hence DeBrincat's laugh when asked what kind of reception he expects at Canadian Tire Centre.

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"I’m not expecting a very warm one, but I think it will be a good game between two good teams and it should be a fun one," DeBrincat said Friday afternoon.

It's easier to laugh when things are going well, and DeBrincat's five goals and eight points have helped the Wings to a 3-1-0 start. The Senators, an Atlantic Division rival, have the same record. That, combined with the memory of what happened last season, when the Wings lost, 6-2, on Feb. 27 and 6-1 on Feb. 28, casts Saturday's game into more than just another regular-season game.

"It was two games we had there and we were playing well at the time, and we went in there and they kind of gave it to us, physically," captain Dylan Larkin said. "They were more emotionally into it.

"I think there’s no score to be settled — it’s a new season, we’ve got a new group, but, we know what it is like to go into that building, and I’m sure with the starts to both of our seasons, it’s going to be emotionally charged, and Alex going back. There will be a lot of things. We’re both trying to make the playoffs and neither team has been there in the past couple years, so we’re in the same position and we both want points and be a team that gets in the playoffs."

Coach Derek Lalonde downplayed the impact of those two losses — it was the week of the trade deadline, and he's right, general manager Steve Yzerman would have traded pending unrestricted free agent Tyler Bertuzzi regardless — but Yzerman has said they did play into his decision-making regarding the state of the team.

"I know the media thinks those were huge games, and emotional — in our locker room, they were just two games," Lalonde said. "We would have bounced back. We had games like that throughout the year, it just happened to be at the deadline. There’s no doubt in my mind, we still would have done what we did at the deadline if we had won those two games. So, I don’t want to downplay it, but to me it’s just another game versus a top team in the league, that’s proven itself as good as there is in our division."

The Wings have a better roster thanks to Yzerman's offseason makeover, highlighted by the trade for DeBrincat, which saw the Wings give up forward Dominik Kubalik, defense prospect Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick. The trade worked out perfectly for DeBrincat, a Farmington Hills native who now gets to play for his hometown NHL team. Whatever sore feelings were left behind in Ottawa, he'll deal with them.

"Over the summer, when a lot of that stuff was coming out, I saw a little bit of it," he said. "It is what it is. I know what happened behind closed doors and what the situation was. A lot of stuff coming out wasn’t exactly how it played out. It is what it is. They’ll write what they want to write and that’s fine with me."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings' Alex DeBrincat: No warm welcome in Ottawa return