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.

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.

New York Rangers make a surprising decision with their veteran forward as it seems like it was only a one-time thing to healthy scratch Chris Kreider. In Chris Kreider's first game back after being benched he managed to record 18:39 minutes of ice time,

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. “I think there's a lot of details within my game,