TAKING SHAPE
Quinn trying to get Kreider, Blueshirts in condition to play
utes of scrimmaging. “At the end of the day, we’re probably never going to be in the shape or condition out of the gate we were when the season ended, but every team is going to be in that same situation.
“Our goal is to be in better shape than the other 23 teams. Everything is relative, and we’ve got to find a way to get there in the next 2 ¹/2 weeks. I have liked what I’ve seen the last two days, I love our energy physically, I love our enthusiasm mentally, guys are staying on and we’ve got to kick them off the ice after practice.”
Mika Zibanejad’s line matched up against Ryan Strome’s in the scrimmage, with Zibanejad and Strome’s left winger, Artemi Panarin, appearing to engage at times in their own private battle of can-you-top-this? The tempo was reasonable throughout the session and prudence was observed. From Monday’s first day to this, there was an uptick.
Zibanejad had Pavel Buchnevich on his right and Chris Kreider on his left. When we last left the Rangers, Kreider had missed his sixth straight game with a broken left foot he sustained by John Tortorella-ing a Phillippe Meyers shot in Philadelphia on Feb. 28. He and the team were pointing to a return on March 16 or March 18. That, the winger admitted on his Zoom call Tuesday, might not have represented the wisest thinking.
“I think I might have been pushing a little more than I should have to come back a little earlier than I should have,” Kreider said. “It certainly didn’t feel good putting the boot on the first few minutes when I first got onto the ice before it started to settle down a little bit.
“But a few weeks into quarantine it just all of a sudden woke up and felt pretty good. There was a decent amount of rehab initially, but everything is 100 percent now.”
Which means Kreider is in what type of condition two-plus weeks out from Game 1 of a best-of-five?
“It’s hard to be a judge of what kind of hockey shape you are. You haven’t played in any games,” he said. “I know the pace of our two practices has been really good. I think it surprised a lot of people just how fast it was and how long we were able to go.”