Carolina, Colorado Trade Pieces All Score First Points Against New York Rangers

The Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche (and Chicago Blackhawks too) pulled off a blockbuster trade on Friday night, as Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall were sent to Carolina and Martin Necas and Jack Drury wound up with Colorado.

While both teams acquired talented, high-level players, with no time to practice or even process much of what happened, all four players were suiting up in new threads for games the following day

So it was no surprise that none of the four wound up with any points and actually both Carolina and Colorado wound up losing their games on Saturday.

But just a bit of time to collect themselves was all those players needed apparently. That and getting to face the New York Rangers.

After their loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, the Avalanche were back on the ice Sunday to face the Rangers and the former Hurricanes were all over that game.

Drury was the first trade piece to get on the score sheet as he opened the scoring with a redirect goal, but it was Necas who really shined.

The speedy winger has looked like the perfect complement alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar and he picked up two nice assists in the game as well.

The Avs won that game 5-4 with a last second go-ahead goal. Oh, and in the Avalanche's next game, once again Drury had a goal and Necas had two assists.

Turn to yesterday, and the Hurricanes came into MSG coming off of a 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders, so they were ready to pounce.

Hall and Rantanen each found the scoresheet by setting up Andrei Svechnikov: Hall with a nice entry and good vision to find the Russian coming down the slot; Rantanen with an elite pass after getting Igor Shesterkin to bite.

It's clear that both players are bringing another level to Carolina and coach Rod Brind'Amour even touched on as much.

"There's a little transition going on here, but we get open ice with the players we've added and I think you're going to see a little more of that," Brind'Amour said.

It's safe to say both teams are really enjoying the players they've added and so far this seems like a win-win type of deal, so long as you're not the New York Rangers.

I just can't wait to see Nils Juntorp make his NHL debut in four years at MSG, because we all know what the outcome will be.

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