Zucc’ happy for friends, but is ready to rebuild
Mats Zuccarello is torn. The Rangers winger is happy to see some of his best friends in contention to chase a Stanley Cup. He’s just not happy that they’re not still doing it together as teammates.
“It hurts sometimes to see that most of the guys are on Stanley Cup contender teams around the league,” Zuccarello said Friday before the Blueshirts lost to the Lightning, 7-3, in the Garden finale. “It for sure sucks to see that all of them have a chance to win the Stanley Cup, but I think everyone in here is really proud to be a Ranger.”
And Zuccarello wanted to make that clear. After hearing his name in trade rumors in the middle of the season, ones that might not go away in the offseason with one year left on his contract, he wants to be a bridge to the next great Rangers teams.
On a day when five of his former teammates — Ryan McDonagh, J.T. Miller, Dan Girardi, Ryan Callahan and Anton Stralman — were in town with the Lightning for a pit stop at the Garden as they tune up for the playoffs, Zuccarello was where he wanted to be.
“The most important thing for me is to be here,” Zuccarello said. “I love it here and I’m proud to be a Ranger and represent New York City. At the end of the day, I’m happy.”
Zuccarello said he wasn’t looking at Friday’s game as potentially his last in a Rangers uniform at the Garden. He preferred to focus on the future, which to him meant getting this rebuilding group back on track next year after spending this spring watching the playoffs from home for the first time since 2010.
“We’re starting something new here [with] some fresh blood,” Zuccarello said. “I think we’re going to be good next year.”
Coach Alain Vigneault sees players like Zuccarello and defenseman Marc Staal as crucial to the overhaul. While the players change around them, both in names and ages, the two veterans have been indispensable in showing a host of newcomers how to handle themselves in the NHL.
“Both Mats and Marc Staal have done an amazing job,” Vi- gneault said. “You have to look at those two guys, what Marc has done with the six [defensemen] and what Zuccy’s doing with the forwards, so much positive reinforcement. [They’re an] example on the ice by how hard they’re playing and how well they’ve played throughout this stretch, when the trade deadline was over.”
That Zuccarello is all-in on the rebuild doesn’t mean it’s been easy or that he doesn’t miss his old teammates, including the five that were back at the Garden on Friday just four years after they all went to the Stanley Cup final together.
The 30-year-old Norwegian said he still misses McDonagh when he looks across the locker room, only to see a new name in the stall the captain formerly occupied. The two came into the NHL almost at the same time in the 2010-11 season and had shared their Rangers journey together until McDonagh was traded away in February.
Zuccarello recalled his first Thanksgiving in the states, when McDonagh and his wife cooked for him, “and we got a little drunk,” he said. He had been in a scoring drought in the AHL, he said, but his first game after the Thanksgiving feast he scored three goals.
“To see him on the other team is going to be tough, for sure, but at the end of the day, we didn’t have a good season here at the Rangers,” Zuccarello said. “We didn’t make the playoffs. It’s tough, so I’m just happy for him that he gets to play in the playoffs and play on a good team.”