Chris Kreider said he was ready to “take the lessons” from his healthy scratch last Monday’s game against the Devils and move on now that the Rangers and the rest of the NHL have returned from the holiday break.
What exactly were those lessons?
Kreider didn’t particularly care to reveal them when he spoke with reporters after the Blueshirts practiced in Greenburgh.
“I don’t see a ton of use in talking about the experience,” Kreider said. “Take the lessons, improve, be better and be the best version of myself so I can help the team.”
Kreider spent Friday’s practice skating on the wing of Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith and head coach Peter Laviolette described it as a “good practice” for the longest-tenured Ranger on the current roster.
The decision to scratch Kreider came as a shock to observers of the Rangers, who looked to go into the holiday break with a win.
Instead, they dropped their second consecutive game in as many days in an ugly loss to their Hudson River rivals, the Devils.
Back spasms kept Kreider out of three games at the end of November, but the 33-year-old pushed back on any assertion that back issues have hampered any of his ability on the ice.
“Everybody is playing through something. Feel pretty good now,” Kreider responded.
But the winger’s struggles have been hard to miss and in the nine games prior to Monday’s loss to the Devils, Kreider had just one goal in that span.
Kreider currently has 11 goals through 30 games this year, and he is on pace for his lowest points total since his first year in the NHL during the lockout-shortened 2013 season.
Kreider said he was aware of what he needed to work on — something he’s been focused on over the past few days — and had conversations with the coaching staff, though neither Kreider nor head coach Peter Laviolette wanted to go into any details.
“He’s an important piece of the team, and we’re moving forward,” Laviolette said. “We need him and everybody to be great players from this point.”
Coming out of the league’s holiday break, the Rangers will need everything they have left in the tank to get themselves out of the spiral they’ve found themselves in.
The Blueshirts are 23rd in the NHL overall and sitting in front of just the struggling Islanders in the Metro division standings.
Asked what the Rangers needed to do to turn their fortunes, Kreider had a blunt response.
“Stop talking about it,” he said matter-of-factly. “Each game is its own individual thing. We’ve got one game in front of us. Let’s win that game.”
The comment echoed Laviolette’s when the coach explained why it’s been hard to explain what’s been ailing the Rangers.
“I don’t think one brush does it,” the Rangers bench boss said. “It’s something one game. It’s something different the next game. We lose a 2-1 game against Carolina. They score a couple of power-play goals, and then we don’t generate very much in that game in Jersey. So it’s different every game. … But we’ve got to get past that and turn a corner.”
The Rangers will attempt to turn that corner with a pair of games in the Sunshine State over the next three days before a stretch where four of their next five opponents are in or battling for playoff position.
“We’ve got to start coming out of this break, use it as a reset, move forward and go down to Tampa and win a hockey game,” Laviolette said. “Then push our way back in the playoff race.”