Rallying Krei! It would be nonsensical to leave Chris Kreider off Team USA roster
NY Post
You’re making your lists, checking them twice, and I’ve got to say that if you do not have Chris Kreider on Team USA for Four Nations (as most don’t), what in the world are you talking about?
Of course, the only list that counts is the one handed in by Team USA (and Minnesota) GM Billy Guerin, whom I have known for 30 years to be an astute hockey mind. Well, maybe for the past 20 or so.
I’m not going to debate which winger would be excluded by naming Kreider to the squad. It is immaterial to me when speaking about the second-highest American-born goal scorer since 2021-22, the leading American-born power-play-goal scorer in that span and the leading American-born shorthanded-goal scorer over the past three-plus seasons.
Beginning with 2021-22 — during which then Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant unlocked Kreider’s immense production potential by giving him the first penalty-kill assignment of a career that commenced during the 2012 playoffs — Kreider has scored 129 goals, seventh in the NHL and second among Yanks to NHL-leader Auston Matthews’ 169.
Over that span, Kreider has scored 52 power-play goals, third in the NHL, while establishing himself as a net-front auteur. And No. 20’s 10 shorthanded goals is most in the league.
The 33-year-old from Boxford, Mass., has represented his country in six different tournaments, twice in the World Juniors, four times in the World Championships. He is a mentor and an elite goal scorer, and there is no debate about whether he belongs on this team.
It feels right that on the day we celebrate Aaron Judge joining an elite pantheon of athlete — the multi-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award — that we take a walk back to the beginning, when Judge was little more than a 6-foot-7, 280-pound curiosity who mostly specialized in striking out.
The NFL has warned its players to take precautions against a “transnational crime ring” that is suspected of orchestrating a number of break-ins of athletes’ homes including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Joel Embiid isn’t pleased with details of the 76ers’ team meeting after Monday’s loss being leaked, telling reporters after Wednesday’s road loss to the Grizzlies, “whoever leaked that is a real piece of s–t.”
PHOENIX — Jalen Brunson didn’t want to comment on the NBA looking into his father’s promotion and contract as a potential salary-cap circumvention, but the point guard certainly had a message to anybody questioning Rick Brunson’s coaching credentials.
PHOENIX — Wednesday brought some cautiously optimistic updates for the Knicks frontcourt.
The Greatest Escape in franchise history was perpetrated by Glen Sather, when the general manager extricated himself and the Rangers from the final five years of Scott Gomez’s contract by moving the $7,357,143-per-year center to Montreal on June 30, 2009 after two years in New York.
The Yankees publicly are on the same page: Hal Steinbrenner, like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone before him, said that issues with the club’s fundamentals did not hover over the team all season.
The first day of the rest of Daniel Jones’ dwindling time with the Giants arrived Wednesday, with Jones in the building, in the meetings, on the practice field (although not doing very much) and not at all part of the game plan for the next game, relegated to a non-participant role for the remainder of the season.
There will be a little extra magic for Knicks-Spurs on Christmas Day.
The quickest way for the Giants to climb out of quarterback hell is also the quickest way to extend their stay there for at least three more years.