RALEIGH, N.C. – When Chris Kreider, the Rangers' longest-tenured player, was abruptly ejected a day after his name was included in president and general manager Chris Drury's league-wide memo inviting trade partners. , it seemed like a strange coincidence.
But the 33-year-old was hoping to set the record straight for his second successive scratch.
“My back cramped up,” Kreider said Wednesday night after the optional morning skate before the Rangers played the Hurricanes.
“My back is trapped in me – sacrum. A few games ago my lower back was hurting [spine, the lower back made up of five or six vertebrae that support most of the body’s weight and allow for movement] And during training camp, I got chest pain. [the chest, or the part of the body between the neck and the abdomen].
“It's very independent and messy. So we're working on it. We've done some things to fix it so it doesn't happen like this anymore.”
Kreider's name hadn't been heard in trade talk since leading up to the 2020 trade deadline, when the Rangers either kept him due to cap restrictions or traded defenseman Brady Skjei. I essentially had to decide between the two.
Skjei was sent to Carolina, and the Rangers signed Kreider to a seven-year, $45.5 million contract with a no-move clause and was placed on the 15-team no-trade list this season.
Kreider noted that he has been in New York for 13 seasons and said there will always be noise when you play a team like the Rangers.
Still, less than 20 games into the season, Drury made deals to 31 other NHL general managers, citing a list of players not limited to Kreider and captain Jacob Trouba. There is a tinge of ruthlessness in the manner in which the declaration is made. The Rangers' general manager demonstrated this summer when he avoided Barclay Goodrow's no-trade list and cut his $3,641,667 cap hit.
“You shouldn't trivialize anyone's feelings, but how you feel doesn't affect your ability to do what you've been doing all your life unless you let it,” Kreider said. said.
“We have players here who say there are games where they go into a game and feel good, but they don't play well. The weather is bad, they're not feeling well, they're just not feeling well, and all of a sudden the puck hits them. There are some games where your body knows what to do and you just let it do its thing.”
Kreider said he has had discussions with Drury, and he appears to have decided to have several meetings with the players after all the outside chatter. There are always a lot of conversations throughout the season, Kreider said, acknowledging he has been part of the leadership group for a while now.
Kreider, who has nine goals and zero assists on the season, hasn't put much effort into the line he's been skating and hasn't been able to show his usual strength on the power play.
There is dissatisfaction throughout the locker room with the way the team is playing, but the Rangers are looking to use that as fuel.
“I think it's obvious there's frustration, anxiety and tension,” Kreider said of the current mood in the Rangers' locker room. “Good. We still have 20 games left. Let's look at this now and figure out who we are. We had the best regular season in Original Six franchise history last year and won the Presidents Trophy. We did, but it didn't go as well as we expected. We are now being exposed. Our problems are there, the team points out that we are not doing well, and we are doing well. It takes me away from what I'm doing.
“We don't necessarily know what this is at this point, right? This may just be part of the story. We'll look back on this and say, 'This made us better.'”
