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NHL Notebook: Rangers’ Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch on Monday
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Dec 23, 2024, 18:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 23, 2024, 17:52 EST
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The New York Rangers are a mess.
Long-time Ranger Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch for Monday’s game. This comes after they traded their captain, Jacob Trouba, as well as the second-overall pick in the 2019 draft, Kaapo Kakko.
This season, Kreider has 11 goals and 12 points (yes, he has one assist). This season, he has two goals and three points in five-on-five action, while picking up four power play goals. Simply put, Kreider, like the rest of the Rangers, has not been good enough.
The 33-year-old  scored 39 goals and 75 points in 82 games last season and had a career-high 52 goals and 77 points in 2021-22. Kreider’s decline has been worrisome, to say the least.
Last season, the Rangers finished with a 55-23-4 record for a league-leading 114 points. The Presidents’ Trophy winners went to the Eastern Conference Finals, falling in six games to the Florida Panthers, who went on to win the Stanley Cup. Heading into the Christmas break, they are 16-17-1 and five points out of the final Wild Card spot.
Over their last 16 games, they are 4-12-0. On the morning of Nov. 25, two days after the Oilers fell 6-2 to the Edmonton Oilers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Freidman reported that the team wants to make moves to shake things up, naming Kreider and Trouba, with the latter being traded to the Anaheim Ducks a few weeks later.
The thing is, after the 6-2 loss to the Oilers, the Rangers were in a good spot as they had a 12-6-1 record with a +15 goal differential. While they sat in the first Wild Card spot, they were within five points of the division lead with four fewer games played than their rivals, the New Jersey Devils.
It seems to be a case of trying to light a fire under their bottoms gone wrong. Speaking of the Devils and Rangers, the two teams met on Monday morning…

Devils allowed less than 20 shots for a seventh consecutive game

To make matters worse for the New York Rangers, they fell 5-0 to the New Jersey Devils on Monday. In that game, they mustered just 12 shots, by far the lowest shot total they’ve had this season.
However, the Rangers aren’t the only team that can’t get shots off on Jacob Markström and Jake Allen, as the Devils have allowed fewer than 20 shots since their game against the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 7. That’s seven straight games. This is the first time in National Hockey League history a team has done that.
Ironically, the Devils were out-shot 39 to 28 against the Rangers on Dec. 2 but still managed to beat the team separated by the Hudson River by a score of 5-1. Hey, at least the Rangers managed to score in that game!
With the win, the Devils moved into the top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 23-11-3 record with 49 points in 37 games. However, the Washington Capitals (who have 48 points) play on Monday evening against the Boston Bruins and have four games in hand.

John Tavares scored his 200th goal for the Maple Leafs

In the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, John Tavares scored his 200th goal as a Maple Leafs, becoming just the fifth player in National Hockey League history to score 200 goals for two different teams.
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John Tavares’ power play goal at 5:25 of the second period is his 200th goal as a Maple Leaf. With the goal, Tavares becomes the fifth player in NHL history to score 200 goals for two franchises, joining Wayne Gretzky, Lanny McDonald, Mark Messier and Keith Tkachuk.

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The four other players to do so were Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Keith Tkachuk, and former Calgary Flame Lanny McDonald. Tavares was selected first overall by the New York Islanders in the 2009 draft and scored 272 goals and 621 points in 669 games with the team from Long Island.
After the 2017-18 season, Tavares signed a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he’s gone on to score 201 goals and 453 points in 474 games. This season, the 34-year-old has 17 goals and 34 points in 34 games. 
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Bluesky @ryleydelaney.bsky.social.

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