The Rangers didn’t just get a defenseman when they traded Vincent Trocheck over the summer. They got a player who has stepped right into the middle of the team’s plans, and Sean Durzi has wasted no time showing why.
Durzi entered Sunday’s game against the Utah Mammoth third on the club in average ice time, behind only Marcus Pettersson and Vlad Gavrikov, and he was logging more minutes than Adam Fox. He had already scored his first goal as a Ranger and dropped the gloves for the first time in blue in Friday’s 2-0 win over the Red Wings in Detroit. For a player acquired on July 1, that’s about as seamless as it gets.
“Durz has been great,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said at the team’s morning skate Sunday at the Garden. “We've really liked what he's brought to our blue line, which we felt was a priority in helping us improve… He's a good puck mover.
He defends well. He's mobile.
I really like Durz's game, and I think it's only going to get better. He's a young guy (he turns 28 on Oct. 21); he's going to continue to grow.”
Sunday carried a little extra weight for Durzi, too. With Trocheck back at Madison Square Garden with the Mammoth, Durzi was facing his old team for the first time since the trade. That part of the day wasn’t lost on him.
“Six months ago, these guys were some of my best friends,” he said.
The move stunned him at first.
“I was shocked, I would say. I wasn't expecting anything,’’ he said.
“I mean, it's part of the game, obviously, (and) I think you should be ready for it at any time. But… it happens.
There's the initial shock, all that stuff, and then the process of going through it in the summer, moving cities. All that just becomes part of it.
But yeah, initially I was shocked.’’
He’s settled in quickly since then. A native of Mississauga, Ont., Durzi said he got a place in Manhattan, and the change of pace from Utah has been part of the appeal.
“I've been fortunate, I've lived in a couple different terrains now, in my career,’’ he said. “I came in a little early in the summer, settled in.
Living in the city's been great. You can't ask for much more.
There’s always something to do, always somewhere to eat. And then the team's been great.
There's a good group of guys in the city, and it's good. Easy to become friends.”
The fit has gone beyond the locker room. Durzi has given the Rangers exactly what they were looking for on the ice: a right-shot defenseman who can move the puck, help on the power play and handle penalty-kill work. He runs the point on the second unit, and he and Pettersson form one of the club’s two main penalty-kill pairs.
That impact showed up in Detroit. Durzi’s power-play goal in the first period opened the door to the Rangers’ second straight win, and his next shot on the man advantage was redirected in by Oliver Bjorkstrand for what looked like a 2-0 lead before the goal was wiped away on an offside challenge by the Red Wings. A second-period fight with Marco Kasper gave Durzi a shot at a Gordie Howe Hat Trick, but the overturned goal left him short of it.
“I try to bring a little bit of everything,’’ Durzi said, with the cuts still visible on his knuckles.
He has done that and more since arriving, and the Rangers have felt it already.
Meanwhile, the other piece of the Trocheck trade was making noise of his own in Hartford. Prospect Cole Beaudoin, 20, had a goal and two assists Saturday in the Wolf Pack’s season opener, his first professional game. It was another reminder that the deal has been helping the organization on multiple fronts.
For the Rangers, Durzi has been more than a fit. He has been an immediate difference-maker.
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