Glen Sather made the call to pull Kreider from the lineup when it was revealed that Kreider could do long-term damage to his hand if the injury wasn’t fixed quickly. (NY Post)
With that said we'll see how it plays out. Maybe if the Rangers make it to the 2nd round he can return. That would be about 5 weeks from surgery.
Truth be told outside of Boston the East is wide open...it really is. We can beat anyone in the East (outside of Boston which I won't say we can't beat, but we would be a big underdog) and we can lose to anyone in the East, Kreider or no Kreider. I know it is more than stats, but he was playing around 12 mpg, and had 7 points (4 goals) in his last 21 games.
So no excuses...let the chips fall where they may.