The good news for Chris Kreider to start the season: With nine goals, he’s on pace to score 39, which would match his total from 2023-24 and be his fourth consecutive season with more than 30 goals.
The bad news for Kreider: He’s on pace for zero assists. Through 19 games, he’s yet to record his first.
Kreider is in rare company with his bizarre statistical start to the year. Only eight players have ever started their seasons going 19 or more games with at least nine goals and zero assists, according to Stathead. Only one other player besides Kreider — Columbus’ Kirill Marchenko in 2022-23 — has done so since the 1940s.
These numbers are more than just a bizarre trend. They’re reflective of the chances Kreider and his linemates are generating. Sure, unlucky bounces have probably cost the veteran wing a few assists, but New York has been outshot, out-chanced and outscored with Kreider playing at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Rangers have only 43.26 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share with him on the ice, the lowest mark on the team among regulars, barely worse than linemates Mika Zibanejad (43.36 percent) and Reilly Smith (46.93 percent). His ice time (17:22 per game) is the lowest it’s been since 2019-20, when David Quinn was the coach.
All three players on the Kreider-Zibanejad-Smith line are taking fewer shots than in past years. Kreider is attempting 12.57 shots per 60 minutes, according to Evolving-Hockey. That’s his lowest rate since 2020-21. Zibanejad is attempting 10.95 shots per 60 minutes, the lowest rate of his career and down from 12.31 last year. Smith (10.31 shot attempts per 60) is also averaging a career low. Some of that is the result of spending too much time defending in their own zone. Players obviously don’t shoot the puck when defending in front of their own net.
Kreider has always been more of a scorer than an assist man, but he had a career-high 36 assists in 2023-24. For him to have zero is jarring, especially considering he’s on a top-10 power play in the league. The number is telling of how his entire line is playing, especially at even strength.
That leads off our weekly observations. I have 11 this week, the same number as Kaapo Kakko’s point total. This column covers the games in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
1. Jake Leschyshyn, a healthy scratch, made his way through the press box during the first intermission in Vancouver, stopping to tap an Avalanche scout on the shoulder. The scout was none other than Curtis Leschyshyn, his dad. They chatted in the press box lobby between periods, then got to see each other again two nights later in Calgary.
The father-son meetings came together out of luck. The elder Leschyshyn didn’t know his son would be up for the Vancouver and Calgary games on his schedule. Jake got called up only when Filip Chytil went down with an upper-body injury last week against San Jose. He’s since been sent back to AHL Hartford. He didn’t get any NHL games while up with the Rangers, but he at least got some family time.
2. Canucks forward Nils Höglander played pro hockey with Adam Edström back in Sweden, where they were both on Rögle. Höglander’s first impression of the 6-foot-6 Rangers forward shouldn’t come as a surprise.
“He’s pretty tall,” Höglander said with a laugh.
“He has his size, he has his skill, he has his speed, he’s strong,” Höglander added of Edström’s game as a whole. “He has everything to be an NHL player. He proved that now, too, that he can play.”
3. Everyone on the Rangers glows when talking about Jonathan Quick. That appears true with former teammates, too.
“Just an awesome guy,” said Canucks forward Teddy Blueger, who won the Stanley Cup with Quick in Vegas. “Really friendly. Really easy to get along with. He was a great teammate. Obviously, he played great for us when he was in, and even when he wasn’t, he was very supportive. Just a really fun guy to be around.”
4. The Rangers played a good first period in Vancouver but allowed a goal less than a minute into the game. That was their fourth time in 11 games allowing a goal in the first minute of play. New York has allowed a goal within the first four minutes in seven games this year.
5. The Calgary game was Peter Laviolette’s 100th as Rangers head coach. The Rangers had a 67-28-5 record in that span.
6. Adam Fox still gets booed in Calgary. The Flames drafted him, then traded his rights because they doubted he would sign there.
7. Ryan Lindgren, who missed the start of the year with a jaw injury, no longer has to wear a face shield.
“It wasn’t a lot of fun wearing it, so it’s nice just being back to normal,” he said.
He said the fishbowl sometimes fogged up and felt weird after being accustomed to a half shield.
8. Going into the Calgary game, Lindgren noted the Rangers’ numbers against the rush were better than they were earlier in the year. Laviolette also stressed the rush defense’s improvement before the game.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, both the Flames and Oilers had success against New York’s rush defense. Calgary’s Matt Coronato opened the scoring with a goal in transition, and the Oilers scored three goals off the rush. New York had no answers for Connor McDavid, who had two goals and an assist.
9. Flames goalie Dustin Wolf, who played for the Los Angeles Jr. Kings growing up, idolized Quick as a kid. Quick gifted him an autographed stick after Wolf beat the Rangers.
“Dustin, Looking forward to watching your career! Best of luck!” it read.
10. The Rangers’ past two first periods have been dreadful. In 40 combined first-period minutes, the Oilers and Flames led New York 41-14 in shots. Calgary had 81.71 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share in its first period against the Rangers, per Natural Stat Trick, and Edmonton had 61.39 percent, then added a short-handed goal at the end of the frame.
11. Perhaps looking for a spark after a discouraging end to the road trip, the Rangers called up winger Brett Berard from Hartford. He’s set to make his NHL debut Monday against St. Louis.
Berard, a 2020 fifth-round pick, is only 5 foot 9, but he has a strong motor and scoring touch. He led the AHL Wolf Pack with 25 goals last year, then had a strong training camp with the Rangers, putting himself in position for a call-up. He once again is leading the Wolf Pack with goals with seven through 16 games.
“He made an impression on everybody,” Laviolette said during camp. “It’s the way he works and the way he competes. You see him here mixed in with a full NHL team. He looks really good.”
(Top photo of Chris Kreider: Rich Lam / Getty Images)
