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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jonny Brodzinski made his return to his home state of Minnesota earlier this week a memorable one.
The 31-year-old first invited the whole lot of his former Hartford teammates — Matt Rempe, Will Cuylle, Zac Jones, Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann — to dinner at his home in Andover with the rest of his family Wednesday ahead of the game against the Wild on Thursday night.
He did some of the cooking, but his wife, Lauren, did a majority.
“He’s been great. For me personally, he was like my role model in Hartford my first year as a pro,” Cuylle said. “I was always hanging out at his house with some other older guys, and he’s obviously huge for some of the younger guys like [Berard] and Otter that are newer to the team. He’s just obviously huge for everyone here.”
And in the third period of the Rangers’ eventual 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota, Brodzinski broke a 1-1 tie with a nasty wrister off the rush.
It was his seventh goal of the season and came in front of at least 60 family members and a ton of close friends in attendance at Xcel Energy Center.
The last time Brodzinski had scored in that building, he was a senior in high school playing in the state tournament for Blaine High.
“My dad sent me a clip the other day. There were pre-high school games, they were showing a bunch of old highlights, and I was in one of them,” Brodzinski said with a smile. “It was like a half-ice windmill all the way down, just something crazy from the high school.”
When the Rangers face the Blue Jackets on Saturday, Brodzinski will have appeared in 35 games for the team this season, which ties the second-most games he’s played in a single NHL campaign.
He set a career high of 57 contests last season with the Blueshirts.
With seven goals and six assists, the veteran forward is just six points shy of tying the career high of 19 points he set last season.
“When I first got into the league, it was extremely intimidating,” Brodzinski said. “Coming from the American League, you look up to a lot of these guys in the locker room. I can kind of just be a little buffer for that to keep them comfortable, and hopefully they still remain playing their game that got them here. Just be a shoulder to lean on when they need some help and some guidance.”
As part of a lightly attended optional practice Friday afternoon, Adam Fox participated in some battle drills in a regular jersey.
Other players who skated included Jonathan Quick, Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen, Othmann, Rempe and Berard.
