NHL Playoffs 2012: NY Rangers Should Be Thankful Chris Kreider Joined In

Power forward Chris Kreider was born a year after the New Jersey Devils picked goaltender Martin Brodeur in the 1990 NHL draft. He turned one-year-old five weeks after Brodeur’s NHL debut and three days after the soon-to-be franchise face’s first postseason outing.

Fast-forward 21 years and Kreider has now scored one goal on behalf of the rival New York Rangers in each of three playoff showdowns with Brodeur. His shooting percentage against the three-time Stanley Cup champion is a solid 60 percent, having beaten Brodeur in three of five registered tries.

He will look to build upon that Monday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals while nudging the Blueshirts closer to the Stanley Cup final. And he will look to build upon his new NHL record of five postseason goals, all collected before his professional regular season debut.

The mere fact that Kreider was not with the team at any point in its 82-game ride to the summit of the Eastern Conference standings may be the biggest reason why the Rangers should be glad to have him in the postseason.

While the Rangers, having already clinched the division and the conference, played a pair of meaningless games against Pittsburgh and Washington, Kreider was busy taking his school to the summit of NCAA hockey.

The night the Rangers lost to the Penguins, 5-2, Kreider and the Boston College Eagles throttled the Minnesota Gophers, 6-1, in the Frozen Four semifinals. Kreider tallied BC’s third unanswered goal and later assisted on Brian Dumoulin’s power play strike that finalized the 6-1 upshot.

Two nights later, while New York was conceding its regular season finale to the Capitals, 4-1, the Eagles won their championship bout with Ferris State by an identical score. It was a rare pointless outing for the towering junior, but Kreider finished still atop the Eagles’ 2011-12 scoring chart with 23 goals and 22 assists in 44 games.

But even with his second national title in three years and a three-set of both Beanpots and Hockey East titles, Kreider’s energy was far from tamed. Ditto for his craving for postseason glory.

With nothing left to prove at the college level, he signed a three-year entry level contract with the Rangers a mere three days after BC lugged the NCAA trophy home from Tampa.

It wouldn’t become apparent for another five weeks, but the fact that they brought him on board when they did could be a landmark decision in the Rangers’ endeavor to lug home the Cup.

The 82 game grind through the regular season saw New York exceed expectations and be the most dominant part of a four-headed, Atlantic Division monster. But their second-nature shot-blocking habit and ostensible shortage of certifiable offense instilled doubts among many pundits about their postseason viability.

A complicated cycle ensued in the first two rounds of the playoffs when the two bottom seeds from Ottawa and Washington both pushed New York to a seventh game. The Rangers prevailed on both occasions, but playing the maximum 14 games through the first two rounds could only arouse further suspicion that residual fatigue would take any hardware out of their reach.

Meanwhile, Kreider appeared to be nullifying his game-winning goals in Game 6 against Ottawa, an elimination game, and Game 1 against Washington with a multitude of fatal errors in the middle of the conference semifinals. After a two-point performance in Game 1, he went pointless and steadily lost five plus/minus points over the next six outings.

But as soon as the Rangers and their rookie faced touchy questions entering the New Jersey matchup, Kreider perked back up. With his three goals and the primary assist on Dan Girardi’s Game 1 icebreaker, he accounts for a hand in 50 percent of New York’s production so far in the series.

This probably comes as a bigger surprise than it should. After all, while Kreider went through an intense trek through the 2011-12 season not unlike his new teammates, several fundamental differences have rendered him a more fresh-legged component of John Tortorella’s playoff roster.

The Rangers, who had seven skaters suit up for all 82 regular season games, were typically playing every two to three nights on a nonstop basis. And they started their campaign with some overseas travel and had HBO cameras following them up through January.

In the same six month time frame, Kreider played up to 27 fewer games than his soon-to-be professional colleagues. The Eagles played the majority of their games on Fridays and Saturdays and had a 20 day respite from extramural engagements in December.

Translation: Kreider saw just enough action to keep him in a rhythm and allow him to hit the ice sprinting upon joining the Rangers at the outset of the playoffs. At the same time, unlike the rest of the club, this was not exactly more of the same, but rather a new challenge worth embracing.

Conn Smythe candidacy may be a stretch, for that belongs first and foremost to goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Still, Lundqvist naturally needs a lead to safeguard in order to win. And if the Rangers defy all existing wear-and-tear and all notions of detrimental fatigue en route to a 2012 title, no shortage of credit will be owed to Kreider.