Chris Kreider took a leave to rest his body after the New York Rangers were knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on June 1 before going back to the gym and on the ice to prepare for a new season.
Kreider’s mind never stopped playing the match after the Florida Panthers eliminated New York in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final.
“I just don’t think you ever downshift after that,” Kreider said from the Shoulder Check Showcase at Terry Conners Rink on Thursday. “Personally, I haven’t really been able to, so I just think you roll right into next season and continue to get better as a team and as individuals.”
The next campaign for Kreider and the Rangers seems like it cannot come fast enough.
“We know what we have in that locker room,” goalie Jonathan Quick said. “We know how good of a group we are. You lose and obviously you soak that loss a little bit, that stings for a little bit until you realize you have another season here to look forward to and build into, so you start preparing for that. That’s the mindset.”
Before they could pay attention to what is to come, the Rangers watched the Panthers, the team that beat them after their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season, go ahead to win the Stanley Cup.
Kreider, said he rarely watches the Stanley Cup Final, but he did this season.
“For whatever reason I just wanted to suffer through it,” he said.
It was clearly not easy on him, but he did anyway.
Could the Rangers have lifted the Cup in late June if they did some things differently in late May?
New York held a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series after a 5-4 overtime victory in Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on May 26.
They lost each of the next three matches by one goal.
What was the difference?
“I think that was the best team we played all year,” Kreider said. “I think they had absolutely zero ego to their game. They got to their game quicker than any other team. They had complete buy-in up and down their lineup, and to a man we all knew we were right there with them. It’s a game of inches so we’ve got to do the things right now in the offseason going into camp to make sure we come out on the other side of those close ones.”
Kreider said the biggest lesson from that series is that the Panthers established their playing style early in each match because it was a no-nonsense, straight-line, puck-to-the-net, method.
“It’s that simple playoff style,” Kreider said. “It works. It works. We’re capable of doing those things and the more consistently we do those I think it just becomes the law of averages.”
It is that lesson they learned from Florida, that the Rangers should take into training camp.
They added a player who knows about having the law of averages on his club’s side.
Reilly Smith won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2023 season. They beat the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. Quick was the backup goalie.
New York got Smith in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1 for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a second-round pick in 2027.
Smith was not right for the Penguins, which is why the Rangers got him without losing any player on its roster. But they hope he can be a fit with them, possibly as the right wing on the top line with Kreider and center Mike Zibanejad.
The Rangers also signed center Sam Carrick to replace Barclay Goodrow, who was waived and claimed by the San Jose Sharks. Additionally, Erik Gustafsson (Detroit Red Wings), and forwards Jack Roslovic (Carolina Hurricanes) and Alex Wennberg (Sharks) through free agency.
But the center is expected to be back and in training camp on Day 1. If everyone else is anything like Kreider, Day 1 of camp will be like an extension of last season.
“It’s a super-close group, obviously not a lot of turnover, so I think everyone is in the same frame of mind,” Kreider said, “just champing at the bit, ready to go.”
