Nobody on the Rangers was going to be declarative, but there is a distinct possibility Chris Kreider plays on Wednesday night.
The top-six forward has been out since having surgery on his left hand on March 28, a surgery that was needed for a fracture, coach Alain Vigneault finally admitted Wednesday morning at the Garden. Vigneault’s team was preparing for Game 4 of their second-round playoff series against the Penguins, down 2-1 in the best-of-seven contest
“He has been medically cleared in the sense that his fracture is now healed,” Vigneault said after Kreider participated in the morning skate in a regular jersey and didn’t seem to have any restrictions. “So at this stage I’d say he’s day-to-day. I haven’t talked to him today yet, but I found out yesterday he was cleared.”
Vigneault made some drastic lineup changes from Game 2 to Game 3, yet both games resulted in shutout losses. He said on a conference call Tuesday that Kreider’s insertion “would definitely bring a lot to our lineup,” but would not say if that would happen for Game 4.
“I haven’t talked to him,” Vigneault said. “Today was his first time on the ice with his teammates. I can just tell you that he’s day-to-day at this stage.”
Kreider was also coy about the possibility of playing, sticking to the same script as his coach, actually saying the words “day-to-day” a total of five times in an interview that ran just more than two minutes.
“Good,” he responded to how he is feeling. “I was able to lean into it a little bit today. So we’ll take it day-by-day from here and hopefully it’ll get better.”
When asked if he had any restrictions on the hand, he said, “Not that I know of. None that the doctor mentioned, so we’ll take it day-by-day.”
Kreider, 23, also suffered from a slight case of selective amnesia, saying he didn’t remember the exact incident that caused the injury, just that it felt sore after one game, and then “a couple games later I had it looked at, and now we’re here.” He also said he didn’t really remember the 2012 playoffs, when he burst onto the scene out of Boston College, made his NHL debut in the first round and scored five goals while playing 18 postseason games en route to the Rangers falling two wins short of the Stanley Cup final.
“It was kind of a blur,” he said.
Kreider also acted as if he didn’t know if he was fully cleared to play, dancing around the subject when he was asked if, once he is cleared, he will have to guard against trying to do too much.
“I think once I’m fully cleared, I’ll be fully cleared, so it’s not something I’ll worry about,” he said. “It’s more of a day-to-day thing at this point. It’s how I’ve been approaching [it] the whole time, but this is kind of the light at the end of the tunnel. So if it continues to improve, we’ll see.”
Vigneault obviously would love to have Kreider back in the lineup, bringing speed, physicality, and an offensive touch that is desperately needed. In his place has been a rotating cast of lesser players that includes Derek Dorsett, Dan Carcillo, J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast.
The coach also understands the importance of this game, knowing that going back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Friday night down 3-1 is pretty close to a death knell for the season.
“Tonight’s game, for us, is as close to a ‘must’ game, in my estimation,” Vigneault said. “We’re down two-to-one here. We need to win tonight.”