Chris Kreider’s arrival in Montreal brought a familiar old flashpoint right back to the surface.
The former Rangers winger signed a one-year deal with the Canadiens after the Anaheim Ducks waived him to clear cap space, and the move quickly sent him back into the center of the Carey Price debate that has followed him since 2014. Kreider had been viewed as a possible East Coast fit, but New York never seemed realistic, leaving some Rangers fans bracing for a landing spot like Boston or Philadelphia before Montreal emerged instead.
The Canadiens make sense on paper. They’re positioned as real Stanley Cup contenders, and Kreider is rejoining a cluster of familiar faces from his Rangers years: head coach Martin St.
Louis, president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, and director of sports medicine Jim Ramsay. Still, the old collision with Price in the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals has not gone away, and Canadiens fans continue to carry the memory of the goalie being knocked out for the rest of that series.
New York went on to win the series and reach the Stanley Cup Final, and many Montreal fans still believe Kreider intentionally skated into Price.
That issue came up again on Monday when Kreider met reporters for the first time since signing in Montreal at the Canadiens’ preseason golf tournament. One reporter jokingly asked whether he had “bumped” into the legendary Canadiens goalie over time, and Kreider answered, “No, I"ve never bumped into him.”
He also acknowledged that Montreal’s fan base does not forget much, and said he plans to earn them over the hard way.
“I think they’ve got long memories, so either way I’m going to go out there and work as hard as I can and do whatever it takes to help this team win hockey games,” Kreider said, h/t NHL.com's Sean Farrell.
Gorton also addressed the lingering controversy, saying Price never held a grudge and pushing back on the idea that Kreider was trying to injure anyone.
"We always knew that Carey never held a grudge and that helps it," said Gorton. "Listen, I was on New York when it happened, so I had a different perspective than I think some people here did.
When you're going 30 miles per hour like that, anybody can actually stand here and say that was an intentionally done move. If you know Chris, he's played almost 1,000 games.
If you go ask anybody in the NHL, he's never tried to hurt anybody. So I wouldn't worry about any of that.
I think it's going to all work out."
For Rangers fans, Kreider’s game has always been easy to recognize. He could be maddening at times, but the formula was never complicated: plant himself around the crease, use his strength, and finish. That’s how he climbed to third on the Rangers’ all-time goals list and became the franchise leader in playoff goals.
Montreal is trying to build on a surprising run that included a playoff berth and wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Canadiens did not add another top-six forward this offseason, and Kreider became available at the right moment.
One of the biggest issues from that postseason was the lack of production from the top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky. Kreider gives them a proven goal scorer who has done damage in big moments, and that kind of finishing touch is exactly what Montreal was missing.
The grudge from 2014 may still be there for some Canadiens fans. But if Kreider helps push Montreal toward the Stanley Cup Final and beyond, that old wound could fade fast.
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