RALEIGH, N.C. — When Chris Kreider went through his first postseason run as a 21-year-old, he had a shadow of a playoff beard, just a trace of a mustache and some scruff on his chin. Now he is 33, by far the longest-tenured Rangers player. His beard is full. A few gray hairs have snuck into the front.
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He’s grown up. And in the process he’s seen the Rangers ascend, falter and now ascend again.
“He knows this place in and out, obviously better than anyone,” said Mika Zibanejad, his linemate and close friend.
On Thursday, Kreider put together what might have been the finest period of his career, scoring a natural hat trick in a pressure-packed, close-out Game 6 against the Hurricanes.
The Rangers needed every one of his goals. They entered the frame trailing by two, and Kreider’s three tallies propelled his team to a 5-3 win and its second Eastern Conference final berth in three years.
The Goal, The Call, The Crowd.
Sam Rosen and Dave Maloney call Chris Kreider’s game winning hat trick and The Garden Faithful going wild at the watch party. @NYRangers | #NYR | @DaveMaloneyMSG pic.twitter.com/3Ce4vGP0Dm
— x – Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) May 17, 2024
“He put us on his back,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “At the end of the day, we needed to score goals, and this is what he does. This is what he did tonight. It was a pretty unbelievable performance by him, especially for a guy who wasn’t on the ice yesterday.”
Kreider missed Wednesday’s practice for maintenance. He went through an optional morning skate Thursday, but Laviolette wouldn’t confirm whether or not he’d be in the lineup. Kreider squashed any concern when he left the ice, telling reporters he would be playing. He proceeded to go through a collection of platitudes, saying the Rangers needed to take one shift at a time, make the play in front of them and score more goals than the other team.
“Have I hit all the cliches?” he deadpanned.
His words weren’t unique or clever, but they represented the mentality New York’s players needed to have against the Hurricanes. Zibanejad credited Kreider as someone who never seems stressed. His level head sets the tone for New York.
GO DEEPERHow Rangers rallied to close out Hurricanes: 5 takeawaysThe Rangers entered Game 6 with pressure on their shoulders. After jumping to a 3-0 series lead, they had lost twice in a row to a Hurricanes team that finished with the third-best record in the NHL. Another loss, and they’d have been headed back to Manhattan on the verge of a potential series collapse.
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In front of a raucous, rally towel-waving PNC Arena crowd, the Hurricanes jumped on New York in Game 6, taking a two-goal lead into second intermission.
“Just get one,” Zibanejad said of the message in the dressing room between periods. “Just get the next goal, and it’ll change the game.”
And in those tense minutes before the third period, Kreider assured teammates he’d break through. He told them he’d score.
Sure enough, just under seven minutes into the period, he jammed a loose puck past Frederik Andersen. He shouted with excitement and pointed to the puck, making sure the officials saw it had crossed the goal line.
He’d come through on his Game 6 guarantee — something with which Rangers fans have a little experience.
GO DEEPERLazerus: Rangers prove their championship mettle after flirting with infamy“I just think as a group we raised our level, and we started getting pucks to the net,” Kreider said. “I just tried to get there.”
“We were a little down on ourselves after the second period,” added Vincent Trocheck, who had a goal and an assist. “Whenever you’re in a spot like that, you need your big players to come up big. Chris did that tonight.”
Kreider recognized Trocheck’s contributions postgame, too. Walking off the ice, he spotted the center doing a Sportsnet interview. He swooped in and made the Italian fingers gesture that has become associated with Trocheck, who is of Italian descent.
Chris Kreider crashed Vincent Trocheck’s postgame interview with a 🤌 pic.twitter.com/LT3Fhkj191
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) May 17, 2024
Trocheck’s assist came on Kreider’s next goal. With the Rangers on the power play, Trocheck found Artemi Panarin in the high slot. The wing put a shot on net, and Kreider scored in typical Kreider fashion, tipping the puck into the net. He pointed at Panarin and let out a celebratory roar.
With that, the game had shifted. Kreider’s heroics were at the center of it all.
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“He’s terrible,” Panarin joked postgame. The Russian winger paused for a moment, basking in reporters’ laughs. Then, in a more serious tone, he added, “I don’t have to say anything. He says everything by himself on the ice.”
With the game tied, the Rangers kept pushing. Ryan Lindgren, who had a goal taken away by a diving Jordan Martinook effort in the second period, flung a puck across the crease with 4:20 left. Kreider beat Jalen Chatfield for positioning and re-directed the puck. For the third time in less than 10 minutes of game play, he had beaten Andersen. All three goals came within five feet of the net — the area where Kreider has made his living as one of the best goal-scorers in franchise history.
“He’s one of the leaders on the team for a reason,” Laviolette said. “He’s the elder statesman on the team, one of them. We needed that from him.”
The hat trick was the 16th in Rangers history and first since Derick Brassard in 2015.
Kreider made his NHL debut during the 2012 playoffs. He helped the team to the Eastern Conference final that season, then to a Stanley Cup Final berth two years later. He stuck in New York as much of that team’s core left during the Rangers’ rebuild, and he’s been a constant as the club has pushed back into contention. He has 35-plus goals in each of the past three seasons — all playoff years for the Rangers — and had a career-high 52 in 2021-22. During this season, which saw the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy, he became only the club’s third player ever to cross the 300-goal threshold.
“There’s a reason why he’s been here his whole career,” Zibanejad said. “He’s done something right. Just the way he’s been on the ice, off the ice, the way he prepares himself, the way he is as a teammate. … He means a lot to the team. He means a lot to me and this organization and this city.”
Though teammates have an easy time pouring praise on Kreider, he’s far more reticent talking about himself. Asked what the night — his hat trick, the praise thrown his way, the series win — meant to him, he chuckled, saying reporters would hate his answer.
“It means,” he stated simply, “we get to play more hockey.”
(Photo: Chris Seward / AP Photo)
Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh
