The easy answer for the Rangers’ previously struggling offense was 128 miles away last night, hard north from Newark — where the Rangers beat the Devils, 3-2 — en route to Hartford, where Chris Kreider waits for his phone to ring.
But for more than two weeks now, it hasn’t. The 21-year-old keeps scoring goals for the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Connecticut Whale, and keeps suiting up for them. At least he can rest assured his six goals in eight games were not going unnoticed.
“We’re dying to get a guy that’s 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4, that can skate like hell into our lineup,” coach John Tortorella said of Kreider before last night’s victory. “But we’re not going to do it at the expense of him, in hurting him as far as we’re trying to develop him.”
When Kreider was sent down on Feb. 28, he immediately attacked the minors like a man on a mission, scoring four goals in the first three games. He then went scoreless for three, but put in one apiece in a two-game weekend homestand.
“You don’t want to keep on knee-jerking him back and forth,” Tortorella said. “We want to make sure, if we do [call him up] that we feel he’s ready to play.”
Instead of Kreider, newly turned 20-year-old J.T. Miller has stuck with the team, playing 13:38 last night and getting two shots on goal.
“I try not to compare myself to anybody,” said Miller, who put in the winning attempt in the 2-1 shootout win over the Hurricanes on Monday but hasn’t scored since his first two career goals 19 games ago. “I just try to not worry about any of that, just go out and play the way I know, play hard-nosed and make plays when I can.”
* Tortorella noticed how many times his team was ejected from the faceoff circle on Monday, and he surprisingly thought a good amount of them were warranted, especially against fourth-line center Jeff Halpern.
“Halpy gets so low, his helmet is kind of crossing the plane,” Tortorella said. “He needs to adjust himself a little bit and not take the full circle.”
A strategic move has been to put two centers on the ice for defensive zone draws, which Tortorella did last night with Halpern and Brian Boyle early in the third period.
“I always tell my center if I’m not putting another one out, don’t cheat, because I don’t want you thrown out,” Tortorella said. “If you have a second center, you can cheat.”