They played hockey again at the Garden on Wednesday night.
And as the Rangers and Panthers played Game 1 of their conference final, one of the questions surrounding this series — which looks to be as even as it gets on talent, style and experience — was this: What might Chris Kreider have in store for an encore?
The Rangers’ 33-year-old forward entered Wednesday night leading the team in postseason goals with seven in 10 games.
More importantly — and most recently in the forefront of our memories — it was Kreider who lifted his teammates and put them on his back in the third period of their Game 6 clincher over Carolina with his rare and remarkable natural hat trick.
Given the moment (the Rangers had just lost two in a row to the Hurricanes after taking a 3-0 series lead, and they looked wobbly), the circumstance (they entered the third period trailing, 3-1) and the result (they won 5-3 to clinch the series and advance to the final four), the Kreider performance has a chance to stand on the same top shelf as Mark Messier’s heroics 30 years ago.
Where his performance will come to its final resting spot alongside the great Messier, of course, will have something to do with whether the Rangers can win eight more games, starting Wednesday night, and eventually hoist the Stanley Cup.
If, come sometime in June, the Rangers are champions, then Kreider’s performance will truly stand alongside the greatest in franchise history, because he made it possible for them to escape that difficult Carolina series and get to Wednesday night and beyond.
Kreider’s superpower has been his proficiency on the power play. He led the Rangers in the regular season with 18 power-play goals and has two in these playoffs — including his game-tying goal against Carolina in Game 6.
Kreider’s prowess on the power play sets up a fascinating matchup in this series with Florida’s Sam Reinhart, who was the best power-play sniper in the NHL this season.
Of Reinhart’s team-high 57 goals this season, 27 came with the man-advantage. Of the five goals he’s scored in this postseason, one came on the power play.
Reinhart’s 57 goals in the regular season came while connecting on 24.5 percent of his shots that reached the net — a feat nobody in the NHL had done (57 or more goals and 24.5 percent or better shooting) since Mario Lemieux in 1988-89.
The 28-year-old Reinhart joined some significant company as one of just five players to ever put up those numbers: Lemieux, Jari Kurri, Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy. The other four are in the Hall of Fame.
“He can score from any position,’’ Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky recently told reporters.
Kreider, who has a gift for elevating his game at the most important moments, is most dangerous with his redirects in front of the net. He’s turned it into artwork.
Kreider led the NHL in power-play goals in the 2021-22 season with 26 of his 52 goals coming with the man-advantage. This season, 18 of his 39 goals game on the power play.
One of the keys to this series will be which team is able to do a better job of staying out of the penalty box.
The Panthers are a chippier, more antagonistic team than the Hurricanes were, and they did a pretty good job of pushing the Bruins around in their previous series. So, the Rangers’ discipline will go a long way toward determining the outcome of this series.
The Rangers’ power play entered Game 6 of the Carolina series on an 0-for-12 slide before Kreider lit the lamp with that tying goal in the third period.
The Rangers’ penalty kill stymied the Hurricanes for the first part of the teams’ series, with Carolina going 0-for-16 before a Brady Skjei game-winner in Game 4 kept the Hurricanes alive.
The Panthers’ penalty kill had been stifling in the seven playoff games entering Wednesday’s Game 1, killing 94.7 percent (18 of 19).
The Panthers, too, had proven themselves to be unafraid and unaffected by playing on the road. They entered Wednesday night 4-1 this postseason on the road, including winning their past three.
So, as we learned with the Knicks losing Game 7 to Indiana at the Garden on Sunday, nothing is guaranteed — even at home. Not when you’re playing a dangerous, explosive and experienced team like Florida with game-changing players like Reinhart.