The New York Rangers fueled speculation as they scratched Chris Kreider from the lineup against their Hudson River rivals, the New Jersey Devils. Kreider was asked about it Friday by Newsday's Colin Stephenson.

The Chris Kreider move is the latest as the New York Rangers try to end their slump. Follow this tracker for the latest NHL news.

That hadn’t been the case recently, though, at least not to most folks’ memory. Not until Peter Laviolette left the 33-year-old Kreider out of the lineup that faced the Devils on Monday, in the Rangers’ final game before the NHL’s holiday break.

The decision to sit the longest tenured Ranger comes amid the club’s 4-12 skid and free fall in the standings to sixth in the Metropolitan Division and 22nd in the NHL.

The New York Rangers are a mess. Long-time Ranger Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch for Monday’s game. This comes after they traded their captain, Jacob Trouba, as well as the second-overall pick in the 2019 draft,

His natural hat trick in the third period gave the Blueshirts an improbable Game 6 win at Carolina to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.

The Rangers had their first practice since the holiday break as Kreider was asked about his benching and he certainly did not shy away from the topic. “I think there's a lot of details within my game,

It’s hard to overstate the impact Chris Kreider has had on the New York Rangers. Kreider is the Rangers’ all-time playoff goal-scoring leader, for instance. He has spent his entire 13-year career on Broadway with the Blueshirts to this point.