A (Minnesota) Wild weekend in NYC begins with tribute to ‘King Henrik’

The Minnesota Wild end their three-day break as they take on the New York Rangers Friday night at Madison Square Garden and fans won’t want to miss this.

It marsk the return of Mats Zuccarello where he wore the home jersey for nine seasons before being sent to the Dallas Stars. It’ll also include one of the NHL’s most sacred moments   official jersey retirement of one of the greatest goalies of all time: Henrik Lundqvist.

It’s hard to imagine not having a season without Lundqvist, but offseason heart surgery put his playing career to an end. You see, during the days when our treasured Zucs played in the Big Apple, he and “Hank” would spend quite a bit of time together and grew close.

With this, you know the Friday night game will be one to remember for not only the former Rangers netminder, but also for his former teammate.

Throughout nine seasons in New York, Mats Zuccarello notched five seasons with more than 40 points, and while that’s impressive, he’s on pace for 97 points this year. Yes, I said 97 — IF he plays in each of the remaining games for the Wild.

He is arguably one of the greatest lines in the NHL right now  and teamed with Ryan Hartman and Kirill Kaprizov, who are helping the Norway skater play the best he’s ever has. And it’s well deserved.

Following the homecoming and jersey retirement game , the Wild faceoff on Sunday against the New York Islanders, A three-game road trip continues Wednesday night in Chicago. From this, the Wild will embark on a flurry of games to close out the season with 40 games over their final 80 or so days.

Crazy, right?! But the Wild will be fine.

With the depth we continue to show, some fun trade rumors starting to circulate, and a Friday night celebration in New York City, it’s going to be a fun and memorable ride the rest of the season for the Wild.