Following the Senators’ trade that sent Mika Zibanejad to New York for Derick Brassard, it was easy to circle November 27th on the calendar and look forward to the first opportunity for each of these players to face their former teams, but once Zibby was felled by a broken fibula, it felt like some of the air was let out of the balloon.
Thankfully, the recently claimed Matt Puempel has helped rekindle some of that.
Puempel, who was claimed by New York off waivers on Monday to help fill the void while Pavel Buchnevich and Zibanejad are out, scored in his first game as a Ranger and gushed to reporters after the game about the opportunity he’s receiving in New York.