Chris Kreider's playoff run now record setting as Rangers rookie scores again

May 20, 2012 - The Star Ledger - View Full Article

Has three goals this series

Chris Kreider has streaked through these NHL playoffs, a 21-year-old phenom with no previous professional experience who has lit up the goal lamps. It's less fairy tale than capricious youth breaking down archetypes for postseason success.

But for all that he's done so far for the Rangers, maybe nothing speaks to his fresh-on-the-scene flair than a nugget passed along by his coach.

John Tortorella has spoken to Chris Kreider no more than three, four times, max, by his estimation. Which would be at least one less time than he's scored this spring, having netted his fifth goal Saturday in the Rangers' 3-0 Game 3 win.

Those five goals are the most ever scored by a player before playing in their first regular season game. And that record could be as much as Tortorella can provide on Kreider.

"I don't even know the kid," Tortorella said. "For me to sit here and say I thought it was going to be that time, I have no idea. I don't know the kid at all. I've probably spoken to him probably three or four times since he's been here. But he has a knack.The puck follows him around. And he has a ways to go away from the puck, but he has a knack with that puck. We talked about it in between periods. We needed him to be better defensively, but we felt he had the best chance to score the goal. We end up scoring a couple of them, and him scoring one. And as we continue, especially when the season starts next year, I think that's when we'll certainly find more about him. But it's pretty exciting to see what he's doing as a kid coming right out of college."

Kreider scored in the third period Saturday, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead, the buffer they needed, following course with his goal in Game 1 that also gave them a 2-0 lead into a formerly scoreless game entering the final period.

He also scored a goal in Game 2, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead, although that one did not stand up. For context, Kreider has more goals than Marian Gaborik or Zach Parise this postseason.

"He's done a great job, though," Henrik Lundqvist said. "I'm really happy the way he came in and fit into the group and adjusted his game. So he should have a lot of credit. But, again, I'm not going to give him any slack because he's young and hasn't played that much. He's here because he can play here. So the expectation -- especially in their own end, it's important everybody does what we expect everybody to do out there. But he's been good."

Mike Vorkunov: mvorkunov@starledger.com; twitter.com/Mike_Vorkunov



ECF Game 3 Recap: Devils can’t solve Lundqvist…again

May 20, 2012 - Devils Army Blog - View Full Article

I’m going to make this a relatively short recap, because I don’t think any Devils fans really want to think about Saturday afternoon’s Game 3 at all, and I don’t blame you.  It was a frustrating game.

From the drop of the puck in the first period to the final horn in the third period, the Devils were by far the superior team on the Prudential Center ice.  The Devils owned puck possession, shot attempts, shots on goal (36-21) and pretty much every other statistic except goals.  The main, if not only reason for the goose egg in the goal department was the superb play of Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.  He kept his team in a game that they had no business winning.  There, I said it.  They got outplayed dramatically for 40 minutes, then got a quick strike by Dan Girardi on a power play, and a tip-in by Chris Kreider shortly after.  Other than that, and some strong saves by Martin Brodeur, including a tremendous stop on Ryan Callahan’s rebound attempt, the Rangers pretty much sat back and tried to contain the Devils.

Nothing went right for the home team on this day.  They hit goal posts, they got robbed by Lundqvist time after time and then they broke sticks on shot attempts.  Perhaps they just started pressing too much.  Eventually, they started making some bad decisions with the puck, particularly on the power play, and they frustrated themselves.

So what does that mean?  Like in their Game 1 loss, the Devils outplayed the Rangers.  They got better chances and more chances on Saturday, yet the result is the same.  The Devils now trail a series they could just as easily be leading 3-0.  If they keep playing the way they’ve played for most of this series, they’ll have a good chance to win games and win the series.  Lundqvist is tremendous, but he’s beatable, and by the law of averages, he can’t stop everything forever.

One area that wasn’t very good for the Devils on Saturday was special teams.  It seemed that the Rangers would get away with whatever they wanted on the ice, highlighted by Brandon Prust’s cheapshot to the head of Anton Volchenkov going un-called, but at the end of the day, the Devils got five power plays, and they didn’t do much on any of them.  They got some offensive zone time, but they either forced a bad shot or over-passed, and the Rangers cleared the zone with ease.  On the flip side, their penalty kill surrendered what became the game-winning goal.  Girardi had plenty of time to shoot that puck, but he took a great shot and he beat Brodeur, who was good for most of the game.

Again, this isn’t time to panic.  The Devils have dominated the Rangers at even strength throughout the series.  Their only really “bad” period was the third period of Game 1, where they gave up two goals on Brodeur, and didn’t put forth much of a push-back.  Saturday’s loss was a much better effort than Game 1, despite the result.  The Devils need to re-group and approach Game 4 with patience.  They can beat Lundqvist if they keep pushing, and if they do, the Rangers aren’t a very good offensive team.  Playing with the lead against them is a very good idea.  Then again, leading implies scoring goals, and that’s been an extremely difficult task for the Devils in this series.  On the other hand, the Rangers have been relying so heavily on Lundqvist that if he falters, the Devils will have success.