“This organization doesn’t work without the players,” the New York Rangers‘ forward Mika Zibanejad said with a long face after the team missed the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. With that, he also urged everyone to work together to improve the next season. However, looking at the debatable decisions the management took throughout the season, fans can’t help but wonder if the current situation could have been avoided.
After the Rangers were unable to clinch a spot in the postseason, New York netminder Igor Shesterkin grumbled with pain, “In my mind, something broke during the season and went the other way, and we couldn’t handle it.” Difficult words to come from someone who left everything on the ice. But what sent things the other way? One answer has come to light, and the fans are livid.
While almost all New York Rangers players struggled to cope with the pressure this year, forward Chris Kreider‘s 13th season with the team was an especially poor one. While it wasn’t initially clear as to why the veteran couldn’t step up to carry the weight of the expectations, it is now. The Athletic reporter Peter Baugh posted on X on April 21, sharing what caused Kreider to have such a horrific 2024-25 season. “Chris Kreider said he dealt with back troubles early in the season, an illness that resulted in vertigo midseason, and then suffered a hand injury the first game after 4 Nations,” the post notes, while affirming that the Rangers’ celebrity will need surgery.
Naturally, fans were furious as to why the information was just revealed instead of being in the loop from the beginning. “Why on earth was he allowed to keep playing through all of this,” one fan was bewildered as to why the New York Rangers’ management would even take such a dumb decision to make an injured player go on despite their physical discomfort.
Chris Kreider said he dealt with back troubles early in the season, an illness that resulted in vertigo midseason, and then suffered a hand injury the first game after 4 Nations.
His hand might require surgery.
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) April 21, 2025
The story is developing
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