Mats Zuccarello was a crowd favorite at Madison Square Garden during his nine seasons with the New York Rangers after signing with them in May 2010. He was an excellent complementary scorer who actually led the Rangers with 59 points in 2013-14 , then contributed 13 points in 25 playoff games to help the Rangers reach the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. He also became the first Norwegian player to play in the Final.
During his time with the Rangers, Zuccarello won the prestigious Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award (as chosen by the fans) three times. The cries of “Zucc” from the Garden rafters were among the most common sounds at MSG during those years.
“He’s a great teammate, you know, guys like to play with him, he loves to have fun. To me he was kind of that annoying little brother,” Rangers goalie legend and former teammate Henrik Lundqvist said on a recent TNT broadcast. “He’s a great guy, great player.”…