Chris Kreider On The Verge Of A Return?

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Throughout his tenure with the New York Rangers, 23 year old forward Chris Kreider has proved he poses an offensive threat and packs a ton of punch when inserted into the Rangers’ lineup.

On March 25, Kreider suffered an injury to his hand after blocking a shot late in a game, although it wasn’t originally thought to be serious, it actually turned out to be. The winger would need surgery to repair torn tendons in his hand.

At first, the hole left by Kreider was quite noticeable, but after a while, the Rangers got accustomed to life without him and were eventually able to find their groove at the right time, heading into a playoff run. New York was without him for their first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers, but the Rangers managed to score enough goals (none by Rick Nash) to squeeze by and advance in seven games.

Now, in the midst of an Eastern Conference semi-final matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the chances of Kreider returning are getting higher and higher with each passing minute. He has not been skating with his teammates yet, but after they leave the ice, Chris steps out and tries to improve his conditioning and technical skills.

Here are a series of tweets regarding Kreider’s improvement from Andrew Gross of The Record:

 

 

Kreider is obviously making great strides (no pun intended) as he works his way back into the lineup. It is quite clear that the Rangers can survive and go on without him, but with the youngster in the lineup, they are a much more dangerous team with great offensive capabilities.

If Kreider makes his return in the series, and Nash starts scoring, New York will be very tough to beat.

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