Chris Kreider is well aware his name is in the rumour mill, but the longest-serving New York Ranger says that shouldn't affect his play when he gets back on the ice.
Kreider, who will miss a second game in a row because of back spasms Wednesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, spoke to New York reporters after the morning skate.
“Shouldn’t trivialize someone’s feelings, but how you feel doesn’t affect your ability to do something that you’ve done for the entirety of your life – unless you let it,” Kreider said, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
“There’s guys in here who will say there are games where they come in and they feel great and they don’t play well. There’s games where they’re under the weather, they’re sick, maybe they’re a little banged up and all of sudden the puck is following them around. Body knows what to do, just got to do it your own way and let it do it.”
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday that the Rangers are listening to offers on captain Jacob Trouba and winger Chris Kreider, while talks for other players are still ongoing.
Kreider has been with the team since the 2012-13 season and has helped lead the squad to nine post-season appearances in his 12 seasons with the team, including a 2014 run to the Stanley Cup Final and three trips to the Eastern Conference Final. The three-time 30 goal-scorer and one-time 52 goal-scorer, like other veterans in New York, has struggled out of the gate, with just nine goals and no assists in 19 games.
The Rangers have struggled recently, losing three in a row, including a 6-2 setback in Edmonton and a 5-2 defeat on home ice Monday against St. Louis.
New York (12-7-1) is clinging to the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“I think it’s pretty obvious there’s frustration, angst, tension,” Kreider said of the mood in the locker room. “Good. We’re 20 games in. Let’s go through this (expletive) now and figure out who we are. We had the best regular season in the history of an Original Six franchise last year, won a Presidents’ Trophy and didn’t go as far as we would’ve liked. We’re getting exposed right now. Our warts are out there and teams are picking on the things we don’t do well and we’ve gotten away from the things we do do well.
“We don’t necessarily know what this is right now, right? This could just be part of the story. We look back at this and say, ‘This made us better.’”
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