Alexis Lafreniere gets Rangers opportunity with Chris Kreider out

The Rangers will be without Chris Kreider for the first time this season — after the left winger the win over the Wild on Tuesday — when they take the ice Thursday night at Madison Square Garden to face the Western Conference-leading Stars. 

“We’ll miss him, he’s a big part of our group, it’s not going to be long term, it’s a short-term thing,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “It gives 13 a good chance to go up there and play good hockey with good players.” 

No. 13 is Alexis Lafreniere. 

The question posed to Gallant was about the obstacle of losing Kreider, whose 19 goals are tied with Mika Zibanejad for the team lead, but the Rangers’ bench boss made it about Lafreniere. Such has been a trend for Gallant since he replaced David Quinn as head coach in June 2021, and one that is surely meant to motivate the 2020 first-overall pick. 

“I keep saying he’s 21 years old,” Gallant said Wednesday after practice in Tarrytown. “He scored 19 goals last year. I’m expecting similar numbers again this year and it hasn’t quite been there. But he’s coming, he’s working, he’s doing all the right things. Sometimes you have great runs like he did last year and he hasn’t had as many of those as we’d like and he’d like. He’s fine. I’m not concerned about the kid. A lot of people are, but I’m not. I think he’s going to be a good player, like I said in Montreal last week. 

“We see some real good things, we want to see them more on a consistent basis. He’s got the tools, he’s got the talent. I don’t know how many times I’ve said, he doesn’t get the same opportunity some kids get as a first-overall pick. You can blame that on me or you can blame that on Quinnie, but we’ve got star players ahead of him. We’re trying to win games every night, that’s what our job is. 

“You develop your players in practice, you develop your players in games, but we’re trying to win. That’s my goal. I think it’s a whole Rangers goal.” 

Coaches don’t go hoarse for a player with no potential, which Gallant has repeatedly insinuated about Lafreniere. Though it’s difficult to ignore that Lafreniere seems to always be the player of focus for Gallant, who described the Canadian winger as “OK” since he served as a healthy scratch on Dec. 29. 

Classifying a player as “OK” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but Gallant is always clarifying he’s not disappointed in Lafreniere, just that he knows there’s more to him. 

Without Kreider, Lafreniere will take his spot on the left wing of Mika Zibanejad and Kaapo Kakko. He’ll also likely step into the bumper job on the top power-play unit, which is an opportunity Lafreniere hasn’t really gotten during his three seasons in New York. Gallant is understandably married to the first power-play group he inherited from Quinn, so now is as good a time as any for Lafreniere to do something with this rare opportunity. 

The second line of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Vitali Kravtsov is expected to remain intact, while Barclay Goodrow skated on the third unit in place of Lafreniere alongside Filip Chytil and Jimmy Vesey during practice on Wednesday. Sammy Blais is the next player up after serving as a healthy scratch Tuesday against the Wild. The winger will likely return to his fourth-line role with Jonny Brodzinski and Julien Gauthier, who was a full participant in practice despite exiting Tuesday’s game with an upper-body injury. 

“It was a precautionary thing,” Gauthier said. “I was kind of crunched between two guys, nothing that would keep me out of practice. Ready to go.”