Rangers assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson was in Pittsburgh Monday night, but spent less time scouting the Blueshirts’ next opponent on Wednesday and more time watching his son, Philip, make his NHL debut.
“It was kind of funny because I came down there a little late and missed the first shift. The Penguins scored on the first shift and we walked into [owner] Mario’s [Lemieux] box and all of a sudden I see Philip step on the ice there, so it was a pretty cool feeling watching him get a few strides in there,” the elder Samuelsson said after Rangers practice Tuesday.
Philip, 22, played 22 shifts and logged 15:43 minutes with zeros across the board in all other categories in the Penguins’ 3-1 win against the Maple Leafs. He was selected by Pittsburgh in the second round of the 2009 NHL Draft and has spent the past 2½ seasons with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before making his NHL debut. Like his father, Philip is a defenseman, but Ulf believes his son is more skilled than he was.
“I think he’s a modernized version of what I was. He’s a modern-day good defender but I think he’s a better passer than I was,” he said. “You got to be a lot better on your skates and more mobile and quick. Coach [John] Hynes and the whole Wilkes-Barre organization has done a real good job with Philip and sticking with him.”
Two days after watching Philip play in his first NHL game, Samuelsson will coach against him when the Penguins visit the Garden on Wednesday. He said it will be interesting, but definitely not as hard as having a son (his youngest son, Henrik) on his roster, as he did when he was the head coach of Modo Hockey in Sweden in 2011.
“I coached with a son in Sweden, I think that’s worse than coaching against him,” Samuelsson said. “So I think I’ve gone through the hard part with my family.”
Samuelsson played 17 seasons in the NHL, including five with the Penguins from 1990-1995 winning two Stanley Cups in 1991 and ’92, scoring the series-winning goal in 1991. He spent four seasons on Broadway and is perhaps best known for being knocked unconscious in 1995 when Tie Domi sucker-punched him.
Head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed Henrik Lundqvist will make his seventh-straight start on Wednesday. Lundqvist owns a career 24-18-6 regular season record against Pittsburgh with a 2.39 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.