It's been nearly three years since the Rangers traded one of Mats Zuccarello's best friends, Carl Hagelin, and close to two years since they dealt another one of his close pals, Derick Brassard.
Brassard and Hagelin are now reunited with the Penguins, who visited the Rangers Wednesday night and with whom Hagelin has won a Stanley Cup each of the last two seasons, and Zuccarello admitted it's a strange sight.
"(Hagelin) and Brass are two of my best friends. To see them together there is kind of weird," he said. "But they have a good team. I wish them good luck - not (Wednesday,) but in the future. We're not friends (Wednesday.) During the season we talk a lot."
Brassard returned to the Garden as a visitor last season and in the playoffs with Ottawa, but this was different. In each of the last four postseasons, when Brassard has a knack for raising his game, Brassard faced the Penguins. There was the second-round win with the Rangers in 2014, first-round win in 2015, first-round loss in 2016 and a Game 7 conference final loss last year with the Senators.
"I couldn't really believe it because a couple of years ago I was playing here, faced (the Penguins) a couple of times, faced those guys with Ottawa," Brassard said before the game. "I would've never thought a couple of years ago I'd be playing here (with Pittsburgh.)"
Mats Zuccarello embraces Derick Brassard.
(Julie Jacobson/AP)Hagelin said he was napping the day before the trade deadline when he awoke to see a missed call from Brassard, immediately assuming something had happened.
"Just being out there on the ice today for the morning skate and seeing him on my team in that building against the Rangers, it's special, but that's part of the business. That's how it goes," Hagelin said.
Acquiring Brassard symbolized Penguins GM Jim Rutherford's commitment to a three-peat, adding a player who's been a top-six center to play on the third line behind longtime stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Brassard had 44 points in 59 postseason games with the Blueshirts and recorded 11 points in 19 playoff matches last year with Ottawa.
Carl Hagelin celebrates his goal with Mats Zuccarello.
(Bill Kostroun/AP)"For us, it seemed like the bigger the game, the better he played," Alain Vigneault said of Brassard, whom he coached for three years. "He played important minutes. He was one of our top two centers. In Pittsburgh, that just shows you the strength of that team, he's a third-line center. He's a real good player. It seems like when playoffs come around he plays his best hockey of the year."
And that's when Zuccarello believes Brassard will shine for Pittsburgh. Zuccarello is on a team in rebuild mode with his own future uncertain while two of his friends chase a Stanley Cup with one of the Rangers' rivals, but he's glad Brassard is getting another chance for a deep run.
"I think he really enjoys that opportunity," Zuccarello said. "I'm happy for him."
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David Desharnais said he passed his kidney stones Tuesday morning before partaking in the Rangers' optional practice and is now pain-free.