That hadn’t been the case recently, though, at least not to most folks’ memory. Not until Peter Laviolette left the 33-year-old Kreider out of the lineup that faced the Devils on Monday, in the Rangers’ final game before the NHL’s holiday break.

The New York Rangers fueled speculation as they scratched Chris Kreider from the lineup against their Hudson River rivals, the New Jersey Devils. Kreider was asked about it Friday by Newsday's Colin Stephenson.

Day after day, the severity of their situation seemingly does nothing but weigh the Rangers down. Monday afternoon’s 5-0 disaster against the Devils at Prudential Center was no outlier.

NEWARK, N.J. — Chris Kreider, the longest-tenured Rangers player, was a healthy scratch from the lineup Monday afternoon against the Devils in the final game before the NHL’s Christmas break.

The Rangers had their first practice since the holiday break as Kreider was asked about his benching and he certainly did not shy away from the topic. “I think there's a lot of details within my game,

Chris Kreider said he was ready to “take the lessons” from his healthy scratch last Monday’s game against the Devils and move on now that the Rangers and the rest of the NHL have returned from the holiday break.