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New York Rangers: The realities of the Chris Kreider injury

By Steve Paulus

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 27: Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers (C) celebrates his goal with teammates Artemi Panarin #10 (L) and Chris Kreider #20 (R) against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period at the Bell Centre on February 27, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. The New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 27: Ryan Strome #16 of the New York Rangers (C) celebrates his goal with teammates Artemi Panarin #10 (L) and Chris Kreider #20 (R) against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period at the Bell Centre on February 27, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. The New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 25: Mika Zibanejad #93 and Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers celebrate their 4-3 overtime victory over the New York Islanders at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on February 25, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 25: Mika Zibanejad #93 and Chris Kreider #20 of the New York Rangers celebrate their 4-3 overtime victory over the New York Islanders at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on February 25, 2020 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

The news was shocking to all fans of the New York Rangers.  A fractured foot for Chris Kreider, just days after he signed a seven year, $45.5 million contract.

There’s no argument.  Chris Kreider’s fractured foot will have an effect on the New York Rangers and their quest to make the playoffs.  Losing a top six forward who is a clutch scorer, a physical net front presence and  a constant threat due to his speed  will hurt.

The reaction in Rangerland was swift and could be divided into three groups.  Let’s call the first group “The Realists.”   They shrugged their shoulders and  recognized the challenge facing the New York Rangers in their fight to make the playoffs.  They understand that injuries are part of the game and that the Rangers have had fewer injuries to key players than most other teams.

The second group we will call the “The Fatalists.”   They immediately recounted past injuries to Jean Ratelle, Ulf Nilsson,Brian Leetch,  Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello that stood in the way of postseason success.   They are longtime Ranger fans who have lived through numerous debilitating injuries to key players at the worst possible time.  For a Fatalist, the injuries to Igor Shesterkin and Krieder were inevitable.

The last group we will call “The I Told You So’s” and they immediately lamented the fact that the Rangers didn’t trade Kreider and reap the benefits of the return he would have brought.   Many in this group wanted the team to trade Kreider at the deadline, and disagreed with the big contract and long term he was awarded.  They believe that the injury was an example of getting what you ask for, predictable bad luck for a team that made a bad decision.

Be a Realist

We should all be Realists.  Injuries happen and every NHL franchise can point to an ill-timed injury that cost their team a potential championship.   It just so happens that the Rangers have actually been pretty fortunate this season.

According to the website  NHL Injury Viz, the Rangers have lost the fourth fewest number of man-games due to injury in the NHL this season.  Here’s the Blueshirt breakdown:

Goalies:  6 games
Defensemen:  33 games
Forwards:  48 games

That’s a total of 87 man-games lost by the Rangers this season.  Here are the players who were out the longest:

Libor Hajek (knee) – 16 games
Marc Staal (ankle & misc) – 15 games
Mika Zibanejad (upper body) – 13 games
Micheal Haley (core) – 11 games
Brendan Lemieux (hand)  – 10 games

No other players have missed as many as six games.  As David Quinn pointed out last night, when Mika Zibanejad missed his 13 games the Rangers went 8-4-1.

Some comparisons

All teams have injuries, but it seems like there have been an inordinate number of injuries to stars this season.   The Penguins lost Sidney Crosby for 28 games and Jake Guentzel for 24 games.  The  Flyers haven’t seen Nolan Patrick play this season and Oskar Lindblom has cancer.  Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl are just a few who missed significant time.  Add Kreider to the list.

The Rangers are in a life and death struggle for a playoff berth with  Metropolitan Division rivals Carolina, Columbus and the Islanders.  They are neck and neck with Atlantic Division teams Toronto and Florida.  How have those teams fared when it comes to injuries?

Carolina Hurricanes:  74 man-games lost
Columbus Blue Jackets:  380 man-games lost
Islanders:  151 man-games lost
Florida:  106 man-games lost
Toronto:  177 man-games lost

The number of man-games lost doesn’t take into account the timing and nature of injuries.  While the Hurricanes have lost only 74 man-games, they have lost top defenseman Dougie Hamilton for the rest of the season and goalie James Reimer and defenseman Brett Pesce will be out for a while.

Columbus is missing eight regulars right now and Toronto has lost Jake Muzzin, Ilya Mikheyev and Andreas Johnsson for weeks.

No matter how you look at it, as much as it will hurt to lose Kreider, other teams have suffered as much or more.

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