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Here’s a question: What does Alzner think about Mete, who will play his first NHL game Thursday night.

“He’s a popular guy amongst the guys,” Alzner said. “He’s got a great nickname … we call him ‘Meat’.

“We were trying to figure out how to pronounce his name at first, so we all just said Meat,” Alzner added. “When you have a nickname like that, everybody talks to you a little bit more and he seems like a really, really great guy. So that makes it even better. We’re really excited to have him and he’s a heckuva player, too. So we’re pretty fortunate.”

Mete will start the season on the top defence pair with Shea Weber, while Alzner will be with Jeff Petry. Alzner’s simple, steady game should help the smooth-skating Petry.

“I want to give him some freedom if possible because everyone knows he can skate like the wind … it’s pretty crazy,” Alzner said. “So I want to be able to let him use that as much as possible and know that he can take a chance when he needs to take a chance or stay up a little bit longer if he wants to because I’ll be back there for him. I want to be able to be reliable for him … let him know that I’m always going to be in this one spot, I’m always going to be right here in this position so he can find me and we can get out of the zone quick. With my style of game, that’s the No. 1 thing is getting out of the zone.”

Simple — but effective.

scowan@postmedia.com

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