It was a typical day of practice for Chris Kreider, another morning skate at the Rangers facility in Tarrytown, N.Y., like hundreds before it. Toward the end, Kreider planted himself in front of Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers goalie, while a phalanx of teammates fired slapshots in their direction.
One by one, as the pucks sizzled through the air toward them at roughly 100 miles per hour, Kreider calmly tipped them with his stick. Some pinged off the crossbar, some bounced down into the goal, a few deflected into Shesterkin’s padding. But Kreider got his stick on virtually every one of them.