Rangers Week Ahead: Chris Kreider’s return to MSG begins hectic 7 days
Chris Kreider’s return to Madison Square Garden with the Anaheim Ducks highlights the busiest week of the season for the New York Rangers.
The Rangers schedule is packed this week, with five games in the next seven days, beginning with a visit by Kreider and his new team Monday night. They traded the third-leading goal-scorer in their history (326 goals) to the Ducks in June for minor-league forward Carey Terrance and an exchange of draft picks.
Last season, the 34-year-old forward had his worst full-season offensive numbers (22 goals, 30 points) since 2016-17. With the Rangers wanting to get younger and shave money off their salary cap, they felt Kreider, with two seasons remaining on his $6.5 million AAV contract, was expendable. That’s despite the fact he’s also first in franchise history with 48 playoff goals and tied for first with 116 regular-season power-play goals.
Kreider rediscovered his scoring touch with the Ducks. In 28 games, he has 13 goals and 20 points, keeping the Ducks near the top of the Pacific Division as they try to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017-18. They haven’t finished higher than sixth in the division since then.
The Rangers are coming off arguably their biggest win of the season, a 5-4 overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens at The Garden on Saturday night that saw them overcome a 3-0 deficit before J.T. Miller’s power-play goal at 2:56 of OT gave them the win. The key now is that the Rangers must build on the emotion of that win. New York begins the week two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins, who hold the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.
There’s opportunity here — three of their five opponents (the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators) enter the week outside of a playoff position. But the Rangers can’t afford to look past anyone, especially later in the week where they’re liable to feel the strain of so much hockey in so little time.
Who’s hot
Miller also scored the tying goal against Montreal and is up to nine goals in 33 games. He has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games and starting to look like the offensive force the Rangers thought they were getting when they acquired him from the Canucks on Jan. 31.
Who’s not
The Rangers don’t count on fourth-line center Sam Carrick for a lot of offense, but 11 games without a point won’t cut it. Coach Mike Sullivan cut Carrick’s ice time – he hasn’t played more than 9:41 in the past six games. Perhaps Matt Rempe’s long-awaited return from a two-month injury absence can spark Carrick, should the 6-foot-9 forward rejoin the lineup this week.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
One of the busiest seven-day stretches in franchise history. It’s the first time the Rangers play five games in a seven-day span since they did it from March 11-17, 2024 (they were 4-1-0, a result they’d be happy to emulate). Before that, you have to go back to April 2-8, 1996, to find the Rangers playing five games in seven days, though that one was Tuesday-Monday rather than Monday-Sunday.
Anaheim Ducks at Rangers (Dec. 15, 7 p.m.; MSG)
Kreider isn’t the only ex-Rangers player returning to MSG. It’s also Jacob Trouba’s first game back in New York since the Rangers traded the 28th captain in franchise history to the Ducks on Dec. 6, 2024. Trouba did face his former team in Anaheim on March 28, dishing out four hits in the Ducks’ 5-4 win. Trouba is not nearly as beloved as Kreider, but his return should also elicit some powerful memories.
Trouba leads Anaheim defensemen with five goals and a plus-14 rating. He has five assists in 10 career games against the Rangers, nine of those contests early in his career with the Winnipeg Jets.
Igor Shesterkin is 2-0-1 against the Ducks despite a 3.65 goals-against average and .849 save percentage. With games on back-to-back nights, Sullivan might use Jonathan Quick, who is 30-13-9 against Anaheim with a 2.34 GAA and .913 save percentage.
Miller feasts on the Ducks during his career, with 27 points (nine goals, 18 assists) in 24 games. Artemi Panarin has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) in 19 games.
Vancouver Canucks at Rangers (Dec. 16, 7 p.m., MSG)
The Rangers face a remodeled Canucks team after the trade that sent 2023-24 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild on Friday in exchange for three players and a No. 1 draft pick next year. One of the newcomers, defenseman Zev Buium, had a goal and assist for his new team on Sunday in a 2-1 road win against the New Jersey Devils.
New York won 2-0 in Vancouver on Oct. 28 and swept the season series against the Canucks in 2024-25. The Rangers are 6-1-0 in their past seven against the team they beat to win their most recent Stanley Cup in 1994.
Mika Zibanejad continued his career success against the Canucks by scoring the winning goal in the victory at Vancouver. He has 12 goals and 25 points in 23 career games against Vancouver.
Rangers at St. Louis Blues (Dec. 18, 8 p.m., MSGSN)
The Rangers edged the Blues 3-2 at MSG on Nov. 24, but they’ll be trying to end a five-game losing streak at Enterprise Center, where they haven’t won since Dec. 31, 2018. The Blueshirts are 6-6-1 in their past 13 games against the Blues overall and 85-50-3 with 17 ties since St. Louis entered the NHL in 1967.
Vincent Trocheck scored one of the Rangers goals in the win against the Blues last month, giving him 10 in 17 career games. Will Cuylle has three goals and four points in his four games against St. Louis.
Both could be in line to add to those totals – the Blues (12-14-7) enter the week last in the NHL in goals allowed (118) and goal differential (minus-34).
Philadelphia Flyers at Rangers (Dec. 19, 12:30 p.m., MSG)
The Rangers and Flyers meet for the first of four times this season after Philadelphia won three of four games in 2024-25. That includes an embarrassing 8-5 loss at the Garden on April 9.
The Flyers are off to a surprising start, though they enter the week after losing back-to-back shootouts to the Carolina Hurricanes over the weekend. Before that, Philadelphia was 5-0 in tiebreakers this season.
Panarin has 46 points (15 goals, 31 assists) and is plus-14 in 36 games against the Flyers. Zibanejad, who had four assists in the 8-5 loss, has 19 goals and 42 points in 48 games. Flyers captain Sean Couturier faces the Rangers for the 51st time in the regular season; he has 34 points (nine goals, 25 assists).
Rangers at Nashville Predators (Dec. 20, 7 p.m., MSG2)
The Rangers hop on a plane ASAP after the game against the Flyers and fly to Music City for the final game of their marathon week. They’ll be trying to complete a season sweep of the Predators after winning 6-3 at the Garden on Nov. 10 — despite a hat trick by Nashville rookie Matthew Wood.
Don’t be surprised if the game ends in a shutout. Four of the previous eight games between the teams had that finish – including each of the two meetings last season, when Nashville won 2-0 at home on Dec. 17, 2024. and New York returned the favor at MSG with a 4-0 win on March 2.
Alexis Lafreniere had his best game this season in the win against Nashville; he scored one goal, set up two others and finished plus-3.
Steven Stamkos was scoreless in the loss to the Rangers last month. But he had a four-goal performance last week and owns good career offensive numbers against the Rangers – 19 goals and 43 points in 45 games, all but three with the Tampa Bay Lightning. But much of that has come on the power play; he’s minus-22 all-time against New York.
