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.

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.

Chris Kreider finally got the opportunity to speak out about getting scratched from the lineup during the New York Rangers’ Monday afternoon matchup against the New Jersey Devils. 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.

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.

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.

Artemi Panarin was asked about Chris Kreider getting scratched and his answer was short as he really did not know what to say.

Could this be the next domino to fall with the struggling New York Rangers? And after the volatile trade of former captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks and former No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken,