Trading Chris Kreider Would Be A Big Mistake For Rangers

How appropriate that the Rangers – and especially Chris Kreider – are in Raleigh for the Canes game tonight.

The Rangers need the win to escape their unfunny funk.

Kreider – whether he plays or not – will look fondly on the Canes for his own personal historic pleasure.

After all, it was against Carolina that Kreider established the best reason of all for Chris Drury NOT to trade him despite rumors that he's as good as bye-bye.

It was against these canny Canes last spring that Chris, the Proper Bostonian, etched his name alongside legendary and memorable Rangers of prior decades.

Trailing by two in the third period of Game Six at PNC Arena, the Rangers appeared to be skating in a fog and about to lose the contest. Leading 3-1, the defense-first Canes had the game in hand as the third period began.

It was then that the franchise's leading goal-scorer of the postseason took over.

He jump-started the team when he scored to cut the deficit to one early in the stanza. Suddenly the flames of hope flickered among the Faithful. Chris then added to the blaze during a fiery Blueshirt power play.

Sizing up a shot by Breadman Panarin, Kreider angled his stick so that the biscuit hit the twine with 8:06 remaining in regulation. Suddenly – rather unexpectedly, I might add – the score was tied and Kreider had done his job.

Or, did he?

Not quite. There still was a game to be won and if anyone was going to win it for New York, why not Kreider? So, camped in front of the Canes' goal, Kreider accepted a pass from Ryan Lindgren and beat Canes goalie Fred Andersen.

Stunned to the core, Raleigh rooters could not believe what they had just seen. The historic goal was scored with 4:19 remaining and it went into the books for sure.

Kreider became only the third Ranger in franchise history to score a natural hat trick with three goals in one period of a playoff game. Chris now elevated himself to a level with previous record-holders Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky.

Not that a Rangers "Best Supporting Actor" award was necessary but Barclay Goodrow got that one with an empty-netter.

The game ended 5-3 for New York, giving the Visitors a four-games-to-two series victory. And to show how much the Blueshirts enjoyed "Southern Hospitality," the win marked the second time in three seasons that the Rangers eliminated Carolina in the Canes' barn.

It was Chris Kreider who made this possible. As the longest-tenured Blueshirt and as one whose heroics now are legendary, I submit those are enough reasons why Chris Drury should retain him as a special New York hockey icon!

"When a Ranger pulls off a historic performance such as that," concludes The Old Scout, "Chris Kreider deserves to be a New York hockey hero for life."

Then, a pause: "And nowhere else!"