The New York Rangers announce Mats Zuccarello is to miss upcoming road trip, listed day-to-day with a groin injury.
New York Rangers fan favorite Mats Zuccarello has been diagnosed with a strained groin by team doctors and is currently listed as “day-to-day” per Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post. The 31-year-old will miss the Rangers road trip in Detriot on Friday and Columbus on Saturday.
“We will see how he looks when we get back,” coach David Quinn told Cyrgalis, “see how he looks then”.
Zuccarello has skated in 15 games so far this season, posting three goals and seven assists. Those 10 points are misleading at first glance. Zucc started the season on the slow side, not putting up the numbers he normally does. However, the past eight games have shown Zuccarello starting to heat up with five points in that time span. Getting a playmaker like Zuccarello is something the Rangers definitely need. The timing of this injury truly sucks for Zucc and the team.
A red flag was raised on Tuesday when Zucc skated only 14:53 of ice time. Averaging on the season up to that point around 17 minutes. Seeing Zuccarello’s name on any kind of “scratched” memo is incredibly rare. The man is a machine, who plays the game with no regard to his 5-foot 8-inch frame. Prior to this season, Zucc has missed a total of five games in three years.
Numbers like that are not too shabby, particularly so considering he once took a puck to the head. Every Rangers fan remembers that game. When the details of his injury were released and the overall severity was known, everyone was shocked. Showing zero fear, Zuccarello rested up and got right back on the ice immediately. After being cleared by the team doctors, of course.
Hopefully, a weekend of rest will be all he needs to get back into the lineup this time around, too.
