Forward, goalie still stung by loss to Panthers in Eastern Conference Final

© Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

STAMFORD, Conn. — Chris Kreider took the time to rest his body after the New York Rangers were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on June 1 before getting back into the gym and on the ice to prepare for another season.

Kreider’s mind, though, never stopped playing the game after the Florida Panthers knocked the Rangers out in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final.

“I just don’t think you ever downshift after that,” Kreider said from the Shoulder Check Showcase at Terry Conners Rink on Thursday. “Personally, I haven’t really been able to, so I just think you roll right into next season and continue to get better as a team and as individuals.”

The next season for Kreider and the Rangers seems like it can’t come soon enough.

“We know what we have in that locker room,” goalie Jonathan Quick said. “We know how good of a group we are. You lose and obviously you soak that loss a little bit, that stings for a little bit until you realize you have another season here to look forward to and build into, so you start preparing for that. That’s the mindset.”

Before they could turn to what’s to come, the Rangers watched the Panthers, the team that eliminated them after their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season, go on to win the Stanley Cup.

© Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Kreider, in fact, said he rarely watches the Stanley Cup Final, but he did this year.

“For whatever reason I just wanted to suffer through it,” he said.

It clearly wasn’t easy. In fact, it left him torn.

Could that have been the Rangers instead of the Panthers hoisting the Cup in late June if they just did a few things differently in late May?

The Rangers had a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series after a 5-4 overtime win in Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on May 26.

They lost each of the next three games by one goal.

What was the difference?

“I think that was the best team we played all year,” Kreider said. “I think they had absolutely zero ego to their game. They got to their game quicker than any other team. They had complete buy-in up and down their lineup, and to a man we all knew we were right there with them. It’s a game of inches so we’ve got to do the things right now in the offseason going into camp to make sure we come out on the other side of those close ones.”

Kreider said the biggest takeaway from that series is the fact that the Panthers were able to establish their style of play early in each game because it was a no-nonsense, straight-line, puck-to-the-net, power approach.

“It’s that simple playoff style,” Kreider said. “It works. It works. We’re capable of doing those things and the more consistently we do those I think it just becomes the law of averages.”

It’s that lesson learned, taught to them by the Panthers, that the Rangers need to take into training camp with them.

They added a player who knows about having the law of averages on his team’s side.

Reilly Smith won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights just 13 months ago. They defeated the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. Quick was the backup goalie.

The Rangers acquired Smith in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 1 for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a second-round pick in 2027.

“Incredibly smart,” Kreider said of Smith. “Playing against him for a long time and watching him in Vegas, he can do everything. He can play anywhere on your power play. Very effective penalty killer. He’s very intelligent, very crafty, a strong skater, a ton of skill. He’s dynamic. He’s a really good player.”

Adding Smith is New York’s biggest move of the offseason to date, which says something both about his one season with the Penguins (40 points in 76 games after 56 points in 78 games with Vegas in 2022-23) and the belief the Rangers management group has in the players already in the room.

Smith wasn’t a fit in Pittsburgh, which is why New York was able to get him without giving up a player on its roster. But the Rangers are hoping he can be a fit with them, potentially as the right wing on the top line with Kreider and center Mika Zibanejad.

New York also signed center Sam Carrick to replace Barclay Goodrow, who was waived and claimed by the San Jose Sharks. In addition, Erik Gustafsson (Detroit Red Wings), and forwards Jack Roslovic (Carolina Hurricanes) and Alex Wennberg (Sharks) left via free agency.

But the core is expected to be back and in training camp on Day 1. If everyone else is anything like Kreider, Day 1 of camp will feel like an extension of last season.

“It’s a super-close group, obviously not a lot of turnover, so I think everyone is in the same frame of mind,” Kreider said, “just champing at the bit, ready to go.”