Hagelin recalls crying while visiting then-teammate Zuccarello in ICU

By foxsports
Published

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Carl Hagelin could well be emotional when his new team plays host to a former one in the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

Hagelin, however, admitted he was much more than misty-eyed when recalling a visit to the intensive care unit to see former teammate Mats Zuccarello, who suffered a skull fracture and brain contusion during last season's first-round series versus the Penguins. While Zuccarello has been quiet on the experience, the visual remains pretty clear in the eyes of Hagelin.

Via The New York Daily News:

"So you walk in and you see him and he can't really move his mouth. Like he'll laugh and then only one side of his mouth is working, because he got hit on his left side of his head, which controls the right side of the body. And then when he was trying to talk, nothing really came out, he'd say something and it was like (garble).

"You could see that he knew what was going on so he got frustrated, and then (Derick Brassard) broke down and then I broke down because of the whole mix of everything."

That was in April, and a few months later Hagelin was traded to the Anaheim Ducks and signed a four-year, $16 million contract. The 27-year-old Swede received a warm welcome in his return to Madison Square Garden on Dec. 22, although he saw Zuccarello score a power-play goal in overtime as the Rangers posted a 3-2 win.

Hagelin, who was acquired by the Penguins on Jan. 16, has scored a goal - in Pittsburgh's 6-2 win over the Ducks on Monday - and set up five others in nine games with his new team.

A sixth-round selection of New York during the 2007 draft, Hagelin matched a personal-best with 17 goals last season with the Rangers.