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A year he'll never forget: Brain injury, Tanzania trip alter Mats Zuccarello's outlook
It has been quite a year for the New York Rangers' Mats Zuccarello.
The 28-year-old suffered a brain contusion in April when, in Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs against the Penguins, Zuccarello took a Ryan McDonagh slapshot to the head.
It was immediately obvious when Zuccarello got hit that something was wrong. In hockey, players typically fall to the ice when injured or attempt to skate through it. When Zuccarello got hit, he never fell. He just immediately turned toward the bench and skated off the ice as if in a daze. The Rangers trainers swiftly decided Zuccarello needed to get checked out, but the injury escalated quickly.
“He got off the bench and couldn’t stand up, his legs wouldn’t even support him or he was so dizzy, he didn’t look like he could move,” John Giannone, a sportscaster for Madison Square Garden Network, said to FOX Sports. “When they asked him if he was OK, he couldn’t get words out. He thought about what to say but couldn’t say anything. Even though the puck did hit his helmet, it was pretty jarring, pretty sobering.”
Zuccarello was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a skull fracture and a brain contusion (bleeding on the brain). The forward was unable to speak or move his left arm for four days. It was an injury that seemed not only career-threatening; it could have been life-threatening if left untreated.
But Zuccarello said doctors were confident from the start that he would make nearly a full recovery.
“They were good. They said I was going to be fine,” Zuccarello said. “They said I’m going to be 90 percent fine health-wise and they don’t know about the last 10 percent. My talking is off a little bit, but I can live with that for sure. That’s the least of my problems.”
Zuccarello went through intense speech therapy – something he is still working on over six months after the injury – but even if he does not regain that final 10 percent, his speech is clear and easy to understand. Zuccarello said he started feeling like himself again by the end of June and was able to start working out by the end of July, just three months after his injury. That was a conservative timeline.
“I took some time to relax a little bit and get back to the usual me,” Zuccarello said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of people who have been through worse [injuries], so I’m not going to feel sorry about myself. My goal was just to try to get back. But it’s a serious injury and I wanted to make sure I was completely healed before I started working out, so I maybe took a couple of extra weeks to make sure that everything was OK, but I felt 100 percent.”
It was not a quiet summer for Zuccarello, however. In August, he traveled to Tanzania with Right To Play, a charity Zuccarello has worked with for a few years. He now serves as an ambassador for the organization, which uses play to help educate and empower children facing adversity. The trip marked the first time that Zuccarello was able to see his charity in action.
A native of Norway, Zuccarello said he has always lived a privileged life, and playing for the Rangers in a world-class city such as New York only increased the distance between his world and the world of the children in Tanzania who benefit from Right To Play.
“If you’re born in Norway, it’s almost like you’ve won the lottery. You have a good life, nothing to really worry about,” Zuccarello said. “Growing up in the U.S. or Norway with the pressure of social media and how many followers you have on Instagram or if you don’t have a purse, it’s all a big deal.
“I think that would be almost bad if [the people in Tanzania] knew how well we have it compared to them, but it’s all the little things -- how they appreciate just waking up and having water for a week, eating once a day -- it’s sad, but it brings a smile to their faces, so it’s almost like you kind of admire them. All the small things give them so much pleasure, they’re dancing, clapping. It’s nice to see their smiles.”
While in Tanzania, Zuccarello had the chance to visit multiple cities and speak with teachers at schools. He also spent time sharing a bit of his world with the children of Tanzania; Zuccarello, who traveled with a friend, gave the children hockey sticks and tried to teach them about the game.
“They weren’t really used to holding a stick like that, so you had to be a little careful,” Zuccarello said. “A lot of chins were getting hurt, but they had a good time. We showed them something they’ve never seen before, so it was fun for us to be able to do that.”
Once Zuccarello returned from Tanzania, it was time to get ready for the new season. Although Zuccarello had started working out, he had yet to return to the ice following his injury. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told reporters at the beginning of camp that he did not want to rush Zuccarello and subsequently held the forward out of the first few preseason games.
But Zuccarello proved he was fine in his first game back in the preseason by scoring two goals (one in the shootout) and recording an assist in a 4-3 loss to the Bruins.
He kept that scoring touch alive through the beginning of the season so far, leading the Rangers in goals (seven) and tying for the team lead in points (10) through the first 12 games.
“He’s still every bit as creative as he’s always been,” Giannone said. “His play-making ability is really special, and that hasn’t gone away at all. He’s without a doubt the Rangers’ smartest player on the ice with or without the puck.”
And while Zuccarello clearly hasn’t missed a beat on the ice, he acknowledged that the experiences of the past year both in Tanzania and with his brain injury have altered his perspective on life.
“I don’t know if I’m a different person, but I’m for sure thinking about stuff a little bit more, how to not take things so seriously and try to have more fun, appreciate what you have,” Zuccarello said. “At this time last year, I didn’t go through the injury and I had my charity for a couple of years, but just going down there to see how the kids are and how they live down there, it’s a cliché to say, but it’s kind of like an eye-opener a little bit.”
FS1's Julie Stewart-Binks contributed to this article.
