WELL, THAT WAS QUICK
After blood clot threatened hockey career, Kreider now says he will 'play this year'
Yes, you will see Chris Kreider on the ice with the Rangers again this year, and in fact very likely as soon as Wednesday afternoon’s practice, No. 20 told The Post on Tuesday.
“That’s sure what I’m hoping for,” Kreider, who has been sidelined since the Dec. 27 discovery of a blood clot that was corrected a week later through rib resection surgery, said by phone a day after passing a round of tests and getting the clearance from his surgeon to come off blood thinners. “I’m foaming at the mouth to be around the guys and get back onto the ice with them.
“I don’t know if there is a specific timetable for me to get back in the lineup, but I can tell you this as a fact: I am going to play this year.”
Kreider — who will be in a non-contact jersey upon resuming practice — said the blood clot, discovered between the first and second periods of a game at the Garden against the Caps, was caused by a malformed rib of which he had long been aware. He also admitted he hadn’t been “exactly forthright or nearly vocal enough” in informing the Rangers medical team of symptoms he’d been experiencing leading up to that night.
“If you’re going to have a blood clot, the best way to have one is being part of the New York Rangers,” Kreider said. “The training staff, the medical staff, the whole organiza- tion couldn’t have been better to me throughout this entire experience.”
Kreider explained that his second rib was closer than normal to his first rib and thus pushed it up, causing his collarbone to protrude.
“I’ve had a big bump on one side of my chest since I was very young,” he said. “It ached occasionally, but it had never really been a problem.
“Then in the fall, I started to have some trouble breathing. I’d be out of breath sometimes when I never had before. I’d come to the bench tired after shifts, even some shorter ones, I was having a harder time recovering, and I really couldn’t figure it out. For two or three weeks there, I was coughing up blood at times, but I never said anything. I mean, you never really feel that good during the season, so I thought that it was just part of it.
“And then when we came back after the [Christmas] break, I woke up the morning of the Washington game and my right arm was numb,” the 26-year-old said. “I figured maybe I’d slept on it the wrong way. But then after the first period my arm had swollen to basically twice its size and the docs took a look at it and could see that the circulation had been completely cut off and got me to the hospital immediately.”
The medical team at the Hospital of Special Surgery diagnosed the problem immediately. Three arthroscopic procedures preceded the rib resection. Kreider, who was placed on blood thinners following the surgery, said resuming his career was a secondary thought upon learning of his condition.
“I said to the surgeon, ‘I don’t really want to say this, but I don’t care about whether I can play hockey this year; just tell me I’m going to be healthy,’ ” Kreider said. “That’s what I was concerned about. You hear of people who have pulmonary embolisms and whose lives are never the same.
“I consider myself to be very lucky to be healthy again. Playing hockey is the icing on the cake.”
Kreider said he started to ride a bike and take long walks after being laid up for two or three weeks of recuperation. Then he got back on the ice, progressed to handling and shooting the puck.
“Step by step,” he said. “Then I had the exam [Tuesday] and was cleared to go off blood thinners, which was the final necessary step in the process, and now here I am.”
Kreider, who had 11 goals and 11 assists in 37 games, will rejoin a team in a unique circumstance, just a couple of points out of a wild-card berth but having been informed of management’s intent to focus on the future even if at the expense of a playoff spot.
“I haven’t gone through this with them, so it’s very hard for me to speak to it,” said Kreider, whose absence has only amplified his importance to the team. “But I can say that a lot of us have been together for a long time, we’ve been fortunate that way, and it would be a mistake to underestimate this group.
“I’m sure they’re disappointed and disenchanted with some stuff, but there is a ton of heart in that room, and I cannot wait to get back and be a part of it. I’m healthy and I’m ready to go.”