Kreider gets big minutes, more than Gaborik, in Game 7

Chris Kreider is a big game player – or so we assume, we still haven’t actually seen him play in a “small” game at the NHL level.

After winning a national championship with Boston College, Kreider has moved on to playing in the postseason without ever participating in a regular season NHL game.

That’s impressive on its own – and the fact that he got the deciding goal in Game 6 is nothing to sneeze at – but Game 7 provided the most startling development yet. With the Rangers season on the line, coach John Tortorella showed a lot of faith in the youngster by giving him 18:21 minutes of ice time. To put that in perspective, that’s nine more seconds than Marian Gaborik got.

“He has no fear,” Tortorella told PHT’s Joe Yerdon.

Kreider held his own in the contest and finished the game with a plus-one rating. Although he isn’t expected to be a star in the Rangers playoff run, his presence certainly helps to tip the scales in their favor.