Chris Kreider's series-clinching hat trick has upgraded his Rangers career to another level
Chris Kreider was already a great Ranger, long before Thursday night. All you have to do is read the Blueshirt record book or talk to any of Kreider’s teammates for proof that would convince any skeptic.
But what Kreider did in Game 6 against the Carolina Hurricanes was something else, something that should upgrade his status on Broadway. Is legend too lofty a tag now? We can at least kick that around after what might go down as “The Chris Kreider Game.”
The Rangers were coming off two straight losses and were outplayed in the first two periods of Game 6. The bad side of history was beginning to loom over them, a shadow flickering across Blueshirts. They had once owned this series, winning the first three games. Now it was turning sour.
And then Kreider exploded in the third period, scoring three times in a span of 8:58, erasing a 3-1 deficit. The final goal of his natural hat trick proved to be the winner and the Rangers, after a 5-3 victory, were off to the Eastern Conference Finals, history still looming, but a different, more joyful, kind.
“That is just a monster third period,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said in his postgame press conference in Raleigh, NC. “He put it on his back and he really delivered. It was more than him, but at the end of the day, we needed to score goals and this is what he does.
“It was a pretty unbelievable performance by him.”
Perhaps even more so when you consider this: His teammate, Barclay Goodrow, told reporters at PNC Arena that Kreider had said between the second and third periods, “I know I’m gonna get one here.”
“And he goes and gets three,” Goodrow said.
Kreider became only the third Ranger to score three goals in a single period in a playoff game. The others are Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. In fact, the last time the Rangers had won a road playoff game in which they trailed going into the third period – which they did Thursday night – Messier had his hat trick in 1994 in New Jersey. Messier and Kreider were both 33 years old at the time of their big nights.
Kreider’s hat trick was the 16th in the playoffs by a Ranger and the first since Derick Brassard in 2015. Kreider, Mike Gartner (1990) and Steve Vickers (1973) are the only players in team history to notch a hat trick in a potential series-clinching game, too. You can add in that he’s the third Ranger in history with at least 70 playoff points.
There’s more: Kreider, who has as deft a crease-front touch on tip-ins as any player in the NHL, is the third Ranger with at least 300 career goals – Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle are the others. Kreider, playing in his 10th playoff year for the Rangers (tied for second-most in team history, by the by), also has more goals at The Garden than anyone else. He passed Gilbert in that category this season.
These are the kinds of things we’ll remember in the run-up to that faraway day when the Rangers hoist No. 20 to the rafters at The Garden, which they certainly should.
All of that sounds nice. Kreider, though, is laser-focused on these playoffs. Asked in his postgame presser what his flurry of goals means to him, Kreider replied, in part, “It means we get to play more hockey.”
It’s true. The Rangers, who perhaps got a wake-up call from their mid-series malaise, will play the winner of the Florida-Boston series in the ECF, a berth in the Stanley Cup Final at stake.
After a remarkable third period, fueled by Kreider, the Blueshirts are rolling. “He took over the game,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba told reporters. “He’s shown the ability to do that. A lot of guys in here call him a horse and that’s what he is.”
Kreider made his mark on the Carolina series. Can he do it again in the Conference Finals? Think of how that would burnish his already-growing status as one of the all-time Rangers.
