Rangers rookie Aasen isn't short on speed
Norweigan forward Mats Zuccarello will make his Rangers debut Thursday against Tampa Bay. Credit: Getty Images
GREENBURGH, N.Y. - On his first visit to New York on Sunday night, rookie Mats Zuccarello Aasen and a fellow Norwegian wandered through the West Village and stopped at a trattoria named Zucca. Nothing wrong with something familiar in new surroundings.
"Yeah, did some sightseeing," said Aasen, 22, the leading scorer in the Swedish league last season. "But my main goal is to try and make the team."
Carrying a little jet lag and a big stick, the Rangers rookie joined 10 players on the ice here Monday on the first day of informal workouts. Training camp begins Sept. 17.
At one point in the hour-plus session, Aasen, the smallest player on the ice, dashed behind the net, pulled up and slid a backhanded pass into the crease for a scoring attempt. Then he slipped to the right of Henrik Lundqvist and zipped a shot just past the near post that had the goaltender snapping his head to look behind him.
Think Brian Gionta or Martin St. Louis. Then think a bit smaller. Say 5-7. That's Mats, as he prefers to be called, who understands that he faces a period of transition. The biggest challenge, he thinks, will be the smaller ice surface.
"I have to learn to do everything a little quicker so I can succeed out there," he said afterward. "In Europe, we have bigger rinks but a smaller offensive zone, so here you have a little more space to do something. In Sweden, I was in the corners and behind the nets, but in the Olympics [on the NHL-size Vancouver rink], there's so little space, you can't do that. You have to change your game a little."
The Rangers' brass, who signed him to a two-year deal, doesn't want him to change much. Besides Marian Gaborik, the club struggled to score last season and hopes that the game of the right wing, who scored 23 goals and 64 points in 55 games, translates to the NHL.
"I come here open-minded," Aasen said. "If I'm not good enough, I have to work on it in [AHL] Hartford. I'm coming in with confidence. We'll see where it goes."
Notes & quotes: Tim Kennedy, 24, signed a one-year, $550,000 contract. The free-agent LW/C scored 10 goals and 26 points for Buffalo last season . . . C Artem Anisimov displayed the scar on the heel of his right hand where a broken bone was removed in June and declared: "It feels great." . . . D Steve Eminger, acquired from the Ducks for Aaron Voros, was another early arrival. "There's going to be a lot of competition on defense," Eminger said. Wade Redden, part of that eight or nine-man competition for spots, also was on hand.
