Chris Kreider's hot streak putting him in rarefied air
Rangers left wing Chris Kreider celebrates his power-play goal against the Panthers with center Ryan Strome, right, and center Mika Zibanejad, left, in the first period of an NHL game at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Entering Sunday night’s game against the Devils at Madison Square Garden, Rangers forward Chris Kreider was tied for third in the league with Anaheim’s Troy Terry and Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor with 11 goals, two more than the NHL’s top player, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.
The two goals Kreider scored on Saturday in the Rangers’ road win over the Columbus Blue Jackets were enough to push him up into an elite neighborhood, one that features Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, who led the league with 14 goals entering Sunday, and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, who was second with 12.
It was rarefied air for Kreider, who on Saturday passed Dean Prentice and Bryan Hextall Sr. for 13th on the Rangers’ all-time goal-scoring list.
Kreider, who entered Sunday with 188 goals in 587 career games with the Rangers,
is making quite an impression on his new coach, Gerard Gallant.
"He’s been great since day one,’’ Gallant said Saturday night. "Kreids is always a guy that, he can always skate and he’s in great shape. He just likes to play. He’s having a lot of fun right now and he’s around the net.
"Kreids scores all his goals from that blue paint, and it’s an easy example for the young players. If you’re gonna score, get around that net, get around that blue paint.’’
Kreider has been especially effective on the power play, scoring seven of his 11 goals, including his second one Saturday. It gave the Rangers a 5-2 lead on the way to a 5-3 win.
His seven power-play goals led the league entering Sunday.
Eleven goals in the first 14 games is a pace that would give him 64 in 82 games this season, but in his 10-year career, he’s been known to be a player who gets incredibly hot and then turns cold. He’s never scored as many as 30 goals in a single season. His career high is 28, which he did twice, in 2016-17 and 2018-19.
Of course, the thing with Kreider is that the goals are not the only thing — and sometimes not even the most important thing — he contributes.
On Saturday, after Columbus forward Alexandre Texier knocked over Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin on the Blue Jackets’ third goal, forcing Shesterkin to exit the game with 6:45 remaining to go through the concussion protocol, Kreider jumped on top of Texier to send the message that the Blueshirts will not tolerate people running their goalie.
Kreider said afterward that he didn’t see the extent of the contact between Texier and Shesterkin and didn’t know if Texier had run Shesterkin deliberately. But in the moment, he said, that didn’t matter.
"I’ll tell you what I saw on the play,’’ Kreider said. "I saw the puck go in. I didn’t realize [Texier] tipped it. I just thought he was driving through the crease, and I think I saw the very end of the play, where he gets his arms off his body and kind of cross-checks him in the head.
"So I went and grabbed him. Guys get grabbed around the crease for a lot less . . . I didn’t like seeing my goalie like that. I think that’s something we have up and down the lineup.’’
Right now, the Rangers are seeing everything they could want to see from Kreider, one of six alternate captains on the team and the longest-tenured Ranger. The only thing they need to see now is whether he can stay healthy and keep it up.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
More Rangers
