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.

The Chris Kreider move is the latest as the New York Rangers try to end their slump. Follow this tracker for the latest NHL news.

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.

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,

His natural hat trick in the third period gave the Blueshirts an improbable Game 6 win at Carolina to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.