Mika Zibanejad was scratched<\/a> after he missed a team meeting.<\/p>\nKreider receives warm welcome
\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-16T024143Z_182777060_MT1USATODAY27827014_RTRMADP_3_NHL-ANAHEIM-DUCKS-AT-NEW-YORK-RANGERS.jpg\" "\\"Chris")
Dec 15, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Anaheim Ducks left wing Chris Kreider (20) returns to the ice for the third period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Kreider, the last Ducks player to take the ice for warm-up, was cheered when he came out. Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville started a quartet of former Rangers: Kreider, Trouba, Ryan Strome, and Frank Vatrano.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a cool move by Coach Q,\u201d Kreider said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun building to play in, even as an opponent.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
More than once in his postgame media availability, Kreider admitted that Monday\u2019s game felt weird: \u201cTook me a couple of shifts to remember the guys in blue weren\u2019t my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quenneville was talking to Kreider about neutral zone play during the game\u2019s first commercial break, so Kreider said he missed most of the Rangers\u2019 video tribute for him. He said that what he did see was awesome.<\/p>\n
Kreider ended his Rangers career tied for the franchise record with 116 power-play goals. He\u2019s third in goals (326), seventh in games played (883), eighth in assists (256), and 10th in points (582) in franchise history.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust really grateful for the experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was certainly a warm welcome back. That was incredible. Really really really cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the concept of playing at the Garden in different colors will take Kreider some time to get used to.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a weird game,\u201d Kreider said. \u201cMaybe next time it\u2019ll feel a little more normal, bit of an adrenaline dump in the first period, a little bit of tunnel vision and nerves. Like my first game in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Rempe returns to Rangers lineup<\/p>\n
Rempe was initially deemed a game-time decision by Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan, who added pregame that he anticipated the six-foot-nine, 261-pound forward being available.<\/p>\n
Rempe generated a buzz from the crowd each time he got in on the forecheck. He played a team-low 9:01, but led New York with five hits. Sullivan felt that Rempe played well, given the limited practice time he\u2019s had. Rempe agreed \u2014 with the exception of the Ducks\u2019 final goal with three seconds remaining, which his line was on the ice for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he\u2019s in the lineup, he makes an impact,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI think he creates anxiety for our opponents. That\u2019s an area where I think he can help us. He gets in on the forecheck, he leans on people. He goes to the net front. He makes it hard on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood to see him back,\u201d said Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. \u201cHe\u2019d been practicing for so long, so now he had a chance to play. I mean, he\u2019s physical, he can create offense in different ways, so that\u2019s good to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rempe later detailed his thumb injury, which was broken in several places during an Oct. 23 fight with the San Jose Sharks\u2019 Ryan Reaves.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got to the penalty box,\u201d Rempe explained. \u201cWe were saying \u2018Good fight\u2019 to each other. I looked down at my thumb, and I was like, \u2018Oh my God, this thing\u2019s not right.\u2019 It just got tangled up in his jersey, and then I obviously was kind of in the wrong spot, and I was throwing a lot of left jabs. I just kept going, bang, bang, bang. I guess I just kept breaking and breaking it. But when you\u2019re in a fight, you don\u2019t feel anything, so you had no idea until after. It didn\u2019t really hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
How the Rangers responded to Mika Zibanejad\u2019s absence<\/p>\n
Pregame, Sullivan announced that Zibanejad would not play on Monday because he missed a team meeting. He added that the center would return for Tuesday night\u2019s game against the Vancouver Canucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, sometimes it\u2019s happened for different reason, but one of us have responsibility to step up in that case,\u201d Gavrikov said. \u201cJust got to bring the A-game the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zibanejad\u2019s absence left a sizable hole in New York\u2019s top six and a bigger void in the Rangers\u2019 top power play unit, which has been without No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox since late November.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers rolled out lines of Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re, and Will Cuylle-J.T. Miller-Conor Sheary on Monday. Both Lafreni\u00e8re and Cuylle were on the first power play unit.<\/p>\n
Postgame, Sullivan declined to get into specifics regarding Zibanejad\u2019s absence.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a certain set of expectations that we all hold ourselves accountable to,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cAt the end of the day, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about, and we all take ownership and responsibility for it. Mika and I had a discussion, we made a decision, and we move on. He\u2019s an important player for us. He\u2019s a terrific player, and he\u2019s a terrific person.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more on the Rangers, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The tribute videos played in back-to-back commercial breaks in the first period: nearly two minutes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,404,23515,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-97343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-rangers","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}