CALGARY, Alberta — Chris Kreider, the Rangers’ first-line left wing, will be sidelined for the remainder of the regular season and for at least the start of a potential first-round playoff series after undergoing left hand surgery Friday morning at the Hospital of Special Services in Manhattan.
The Rangers have been extremely tight-lipped regarding both the exact nature of the injury that Kreider sustained on March 21 in Columbus, Ohio, and about a timetable for the winger’s possible return. The official release noted Kreider would be “sidelined indefinitely.”
Coach Alain Vigneault provided no further information following the Blueshirts’ morning skate in advance of their match against the Flames. It is unknown whether Kreider would be able to play in the first round of the playoffs — or, indeed, in the postseason — that would begin on April 16 or April 17.
Kreider, who is believed to have sustained a broken bone during a late third-period incident in which he confronted the Blue Jackets’ Ryan Johansen in the Rangers’ 3-1 victory, played against the Devils the following night and then on Monday against Phoenix before he was scratched from Wednesday’s match at the Garden against the Flyers and shut down for medical evaluation.
A well-placed source told The Post that Kreider — who had 17 goals and 37 points in 66 games — wanted to continue to play through the injury, but general manager Glen Sather made the executive decision to pull him from the lineup when advised there could be substantial long-term risk in not correcting the issue immediately.
Vigneault said the decision to go forward with surgery had been made Thursday by the Rangers’ physicians.
The 22-year-old Kreider, the most physical forward on a Rangers’ club not exactly overflowing with that sort, had been playing the left side on a line with center Derek Stepan and right wing Rick Nash for all but one game since Dec. 22.
Martin St. Louis, who has not scored in 12 games since joining the Rangers at the March 7 trade deadline, has moved up to fill Kreider’s spot on the top line while J.T. Miller has joined the lineup following his recall on Wednesday from the AHL Wolf Pack.
“We really had developed good chemistry as a line, so there’s definitely going to be an adjustment going from Chris to Marty,” Nash told The Post hours before the club sought its fifth straight victory. “Chris is a straight-line guy, who is going to hit the line with speed and go to the net, whereas Marty is more about making plays.
“We’d been pretty successful as a unit facing the other team’s top line and top D-pair, and it’s been enjoyable,” No. 61 said. “There’s no reason we can’t be as successful with Marty if we’re smart about how we play.
“The way I look at it is, the fact that Marty’s been struggling makes it more exciting and more of a challenge for us,” Nash said. “We know that he’s one of the best players in the league. We want to get him going. We want to help him.”
St. Louis, who has three assists as a Blueshirt, is not only attempting to make the adjustment from the Lightning to the Rangers, and from one line to another, but from the right side — where he has spent essentially the entirety of his career — to the left.
“It’s not a position I’ve never played, though I haven’t for a while, but it’s definitely different in what you see on the ice and I’m trying to adjust to that,” said St. Louis, who is working with his third set of linemates since coming to New York. “I know [Nash and Stepan] have played really well together for a long time and have good chemistry, so I don’t want them to change their game.
“I’m going to have to be smart enough to read off them. It’s going to be a work in progress.”
Defenseman Justin Falk, who has not played in a game since Dec. 29 and who refused a conditioning assignment to the AHL Wolf Pack immediately following the Olympics, remained in New York to be with his wife, who is expecting.
Raphael Diaz remained in the lineup for the fourth straight game in place of John Moore, who is recovering from the concussion he suffered on March 21 in Columbus.
The Blueshirts continue their trip Sunday night in Edmonton before matches in Vancouver on Tuesday and Colorado on Thursday. Three of the season’s final four games will be at the Garden.