Mats Zuccarello, a proverbial diamond in the rough, is and always will be a gem in the eyes of Rangers fans. They still embrace him for having turned himself from an unknown Norwegian player into an NHL dynamo. They always cherish his value to the team, even if his greatest value this season is in being trade bait.
Whenever he touches the puck and especially when he scores a goal, which he did Tuesday night for the first and second times this season, the crowd at Madison Square Garden reacts with a fervor and tenor it reserves for no one else.