Rangers Disrespect Kreider, Lose 5-0 As Devils Mock Them. Was That Worth It?

In somewhat of a surprising move, the New York Rangers made veteran Chris Kreider a healthy scratch for Monday’s matinee against the New Jersey Devils.

The 33-year-old left winger has produced only one goal and one point in his past eight games, and Rangers coaching and management obviously wanted to send a message by scratching Kreider.

“We just need more,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette told reporters after the game.

Sitting out Kreider does not help the Rangers or the player at all. And clearly, the score suggested the same.

The Devils hammered the Rangers 5-0, handing the Blueshirts their second straight loss and fifth defeat in six games. The Rangers, without their third-highest shooter in Kreider, only mustered up 12 shots on goal.

New Jersey even mocked the Rangers for trading right winger Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken last week. The Rangers couldn’t bring the best out of the No. 2 draft pick in 2019, and they scratched him, displeased him and traded him. The Devils, meanwhile, got three points from No. 1 pick Jack Hughes.

It was just another embarrassing day for the Rangers, and scratching Kreider did not help at all.

The main issue in Manhattan isn’t Kreider’s struggles on offense. It’s the team’s struggles on offense.

The Rangers scored one goal or fewer in four of their five games before Monday, and they scored just two goals in the fifth game.

This can’t be pinned solely on Kreider, who has never posted fewer than 36 goals in any of the past three seasons. Kreider currently has 11 goals in 30 games – tying him for second-best on the Rangers – and somehow, the team thinks the Rangers will fare better without Kreider.

If this healthy scratch is meant to be a prelude to Kreider getting traded, we don’t know how you showcase Kreider to other teams when he’s sitting in the press box. Wouldn’t it be best to keep Kreider in the lineup, give the Blueshirts some scoring firepower in the short term and trade him once the NHL’s holiday roster freeze concludes? We think so.

The Rangers have more than enough salary cap space – about $8.4 million – to make a trade without including Kreider’s $6.5-million cap hit. And the bigger issue with Kreider is the two seasons he’s under contract following this one. That’s going to be a tough job for Rangers GM Chris Drury to convince another team to invest in a player the Rangers seem no longer interested in investing in.

There’s no doubt about it – the Rangers are a serious mess. But chalking up their woes to Kreider’s impact (or lack thereof) is not right if you’re Rangers management. The loyalty Kreider has shown to the organization over the past dozen seasons is not being paid back at the moment. Given the fact that the Rangers lost 5-0 to the Devils and were humiliated in the process, Kreider obviously isn’t the problem in New York City.

In the right situation – on a legitimate Stanley Cup contender – Kreider could be a goal machine and a difference-maker. But the Rangers are not in the right situation, and laying their struggles at the feet of an experienced hand like Kreider is not to see the forest for the trees.

When Kreider does return to action, he needs to play with a chip on his shoulder because the Rangers have disrespected him in a major way. Kreider can be part of a team’s solution as he has long been, but the Rangers seem to no longer want him to be part of the solution in Manhattan.

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