Chris Kreider rejoined the Rangers lineup on Wednesday night at the Garden, but a savior he was not.
Playing his first game of the postseason, Kreider brought some speed, energy and physicality, but the Rangers still lost Game 4 to the Penguins 4-2 and went down in this best-of-seven, second-round series 3-1.
“Good one shift, rusty the next,” said Kreider, who got 15:24 of ice time and registered one shot on three attempts along with two hits — to go with two giveaways — in his first game since March 24. “Some things that came out of my game in the regular season came back in. It’s just building on that, and continuing to keep it simple.”
Kreider had surgery for a fracture to his left hand on March 28, and on Tuesday was cleared by doctors to play. He said he had “no limitations” in playing, and that after the game his hand felt “fine.”
He rejoined his old linemates, Derek Stepan and Rick Nash, and although the group created a couple of chances, they couldn’t get on the score sheet. Stepan finished his 16:28 a minus-1, while Nash got four shots on goal in 14:05, but was also a minus-1.
“It’s two guys that are very easy to play with,” said Kreider, whose team now needs to win Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Friday night or their season will be over. “They are very skillful, so it makes my job pretty easy. I just have to keep it simple going forward.”
Kreider was not willing to disclose when the actual injury occurred, just saying that it felt sore after one game, and “then a couple games later I had it looked at, and now we’re here.” The 23-year-old darling of the Rangers’ 2012 run to the conference finals also called the ailment a “day-to-day” thing, although he was finally becoming optimistic after a long rehab.
“It’s how I’ve been approaching [it] the whole time,” Kreider said. “But this is kind of the light at the end of the tunnel. So if it continues to improve, we’ll see.”
Although given the OK by the doctors to play, there were moments when it seemed Kreider was hesitant with his injured hand. When asked in the morning if he had to guard against trying to do too much, he balked.
“I think once I’m fully cleared, I’ll be fully cleared,” he said, “so it’s not something I’ll worry about.”