The New York Rangers may have dodged the injury bullet with Julien Gauthier but they’ll be without one of their top forward for Thursday’s game against Dallas.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Rangers’ head coach Gerard Gallant announced that Chris Kreider would not play against the Stars due to an upper-body injury. Gallant later said that he does expect the 31-year-old to be back soon.
Kreider left Tuesday’s game against the Wild with an injury and did not return. The Rangers ended up coming back to win 4-3 in a shootout. In his place, Gallant also announced that Alexis Lafreniere would take Kreider’s spot on the top line and first powerplay unit.
The former first-round pick leads the team in goals this season with 19 and has totaled 30 points in 42 games.
Kreider’s injury is the latest in a season full of key players going down for the Rangers to this point. Ryan Lindgren, Filip Chytil and others have all missed time due to injuries and have left New York changing their lines to mitigate the loss of their top players.
With Kreider out Thursday, New York will have to do that against the Central-leading Dallas Stars again.
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