Despite a furious rally late in the third period, the New York Rangers lost to the Buffalo Sabres 3-2. In doing so, they damaged their fleeting playoff chances and were exposed for their lack of physical play. That will make the upcoming contract talks with upcoming free-agent Chris Kreider all the more interesting.
Late New York Ranger rally falls short
The results were a bit surprising, as the Sabres had lost all four games after the All-Star break, including an overtime loss Thursday night to the lowly Detroit Red Wings. Mika Zibanejad and Kreider scored late in the third period to bring the Rangers within one, but that is all the closer they got. After the game, the head coach David Quinn was not too happy with his stars stating: “At the end of the day, our top players have to be way better than they were tonight.”
New York Rangers in contract talks with Chris Kreider
according to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, The New York Rangers and Chris Kreider’s representatives are expected to talk within the next couple of days. Most pundits believe that there is just a small chance that a deal gets done, but the Rangers are pursuing due diligence in making an effort to re-sign an important member of their team. The Rangers found out Monday what life without Kreider would be like when they lost to the Dallas Stars as their forward sat out the game after suffering an upper-body injury in last Saturday night’s game. Kreider is in the final year of a four-year, $18.5 million deal with the Rangers and is currently No. 1 on TSN’s Trade Bait Board weeks before the trade deadline. Even though he is listed as the number one trade target, many feel that the Rangers would not get enough in return to justify trading such an important piece of their young team, However, Kreider will be turning 29, and many wonder how good will he be in a couple of years, and will he be worth the price tag for the Blueshirts. Among the more interesting stats concerning Kreider is that among the 280 forwards that have logged at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time this season, Kreider ranks among the top-60 in goals and points per 60 minutes played. Not something that you easily want your team to give up.