COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jonny Brodzinski made his return to his dwelling state of Minnesota earlier this week a memorable one.
The 31-year-old first invited the whole thing of his former Hartford teammates — Matt Rempe, Will Cuylle, Zac Jones, Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann — to dinner at his dwelling in Andover with the remainder of his household Wednesday forward of the sport in opposition to the Wild on Thursday night time.
He did among the cooking, however his spouse, Lauren, did a majority.
“He’s been nice. For me personally, he was like my function mannequin in Hartford my first 12 months as a professional,” Cuylle mentioned. “I used to be all the time hanging out at his home with another older guys, and he’s clearly large for among the youthful guys like [Berard] and Otter which can be newer to the staff. He’s simply clearly large for everybody right here.”
And within the third interval of the Rangers’ eventual 3-2 extra time win over Minnesota, Brodzinski broke a 1-1 tie with a nasty wrister off the push.
It was his seventh purpose of the season and got here in entrance of at the very least 60 members of the family and a ton of shut pals in attendance at Xcel Power Heart.
The final time Brodzinski had scored in that constructing, he was a senior in highschool enjoying within the state match for Blaine Excessive.
“My dad despatched me a clip the opposite day. There have been pre-high faculty video games, they have been exhibiting a bunch of previous highlights, and I used to be in one in all them,” Brodzinski mentioned with a smile. “It was like a half-ice windmill all the way in which down, simply one thing loopy from the highschool.”
When the Rangers face the Blue Jackets on Saturday, Brodzinski could have appeared in 35 video games for the staff this season, which ties the second-most video games he’s performed in a single NHL marketing campaign.
He set a profession excessive of 57 contests final season with the Blueshirts.
With seven targets and 6 assists, the veteran ahead is simply six factors shy of tying the profession excessive of 19 factors he set final season.
“Once I first bought into the league, it was extraordinarily intimidating,” Brodzinski mentioned. “Coming from the American League, you look as much as quite a lot of these guys within the locker room. I can sort of simply be just a little buffer for that to maintain them snug, and hopefully they nonetheless stay enjoying their recreation that bought them right here. Simply be a shoulder to lean on after they want some assist and a few steering.”
As a part of a frivolously attended non-obligatory follow Friday afternoon, Adam Fox participated in some battle drills in a daily jersey.
Different gamers who skated included Jonathan Fast, Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen, Othmann, Rempe and Berard.
