There was Chris Kreider, down in the faceoff circle, grabbing his knee after twisting it on a low check from Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon. It was at the 8:30 mark of the second period on Monday as he slowly glided to the bench.
But the 25-year old winger — the hottest Ranger on Broadway — stayed on the bench, and underscored his fitness just over two minutes later on the power play with Dillon in the box.
Kreider gathered a pass from Ryan McDonagh and sped down the left side, entered the faceoff circle and absolutely wired a shot over the right shoulder of San Jose netminder Martin Jones under the crossbar that gave the Blueshirts a 3-1 lead en route to a 7-4 win that lifted their record to 2-1-0.