A Master of the Goal Mouth Gets Better as He Goes
The New York Times
In his 10th season, Chris Kreider of the Rangers has hit a new level, taking control of the hard-fought patch of ice in front of his opponent’s goal.
It was a typical day of practice for Chris Kreider, another morning skate at the Rangers facility in Tarrytown, N.Y., like hundreds before it. Toward the end, Kreider planted himself in front of Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers goalie, while a phalanx of teammates fired slap shots in their direction.
One by one, as the pucks sizzled through the air toward them at roughly 100 miles per hour, Kreider calmly tipped them with his stick. Some pinged off the crossbar, some bounced down into the goal, a few deflected into Shesterkin’s padding. But Kreider got his stick on virtually every one of them.
To the novice eye it was an uncanny display of hand-eye coordination, born from thousands of hours of practice and a unique natural skill. It was also reminiscent of the craft required of a baseball batter facing a darting fastball, something Kreider did obsessively while growing up in Boxford, Mass., just north of Boston.
