Chris Kreider is biased, of course. Mika Zibanejad is his closest friend on the Rangers. They’re the dynamic duo that plays on the same line and spends plenty of time together. One of the memorable moments from the Rangers’ 2022 playoff run was Kreider grabbing a tablet out of Zibanejad’s hands during Game 6 of the opening round against the Penguins and tossing it aside.
Zibanejad looks at the tablet to see his breakaway miss and Kreider just throws it away 😂 pic.twitter.com/zklGR3ZMwn
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) May 14, 2022
“He’s one of the best players in the league,” Kreider said over the weekend, “whether or not he believes it.”
Zibanejad is a thinker. Sometimes it gets him in trouble, as it did through the first five games of that first-round series against the Penguins. He was too wrapped up in matching against Sidney Crosby that Zibanejad forgot why he got that assignment — he’s the Rangers’ No. 1 center, far and away their most important, most versatile forward. And the Rangers needed him to be that guy, not the one trying to shadow Crosby, which he did to fairly mild effect as the Penguins built a 3-1 series lead.
“That’s a lesson for me,” Zibanejad said. “Even though I’m not the youngest guy here I feel like every year I get something out of it and that’s the way it is in life. Every year, you learn as a person and a player and you try to grow. I’m not ashamed of admitting that took a toll on me, but it’s good to have for next time.”
Zibanejad will be 30 in April. His eight-year contract worth $8.5-million per, signed on the eve of last season, begins this season, bringing him in line with No. 1 centers around the league. His 24 points in 20 playoff games last spring tied for sixth in the league and was the second-best scoring postseason for a Rangers forward ever, behind only Mark Messier in the Stanley Cup run of 1994 — and that was with Zibanejad scoring four points in the first five games against Pittsburgh.
The Rangers have a wealth of high-end talent, from Adam Fox to Artemi Panarin to Kreider. But no one on the team can do what Zibanejad does, which is play the most minutes of any forward (his fourth season in a row doing that), take roughly twice as many faceoffs as anyone else (also the fourth season in a row doing that) and post a point a game while doing all the rest.
Over the last four seasons, only one player has at least 50 power-play goals and eight shorthanded goals: No. 93 in blue, red and white.
But there is no attitude to go with it — nothing in Zibanejad’s demeanor that gives away how important he is to the team.
“I am very calm,” he said on Sunday. Zibanejad and Kreider will hit the Garden ice on Monday in the preseason opener for the Rangers, facing the Islanders to kick off the six-game exhibition schedule.
“I don’t think I’m going to change that. I know I’m not going to change that. I’m not going to have the swag out for you guys or anyone else. I like that I think a lot and I think the way I am is one of the reasons I got to this point.”
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It does seem that his teammates — well, one anyway — don’t have a problem prodding Zibanejad to understand his importance. His coach is the same way. Gerard Gallant lets his players be themselves but he’s not above reminding his No. 1 center that he’s one of the elite players in the game.
“I think he shows too much respect sometimes and he forgets how good he is,” Gallant said. “We need him thinking, ‘You know, I’m the best center in the league, I’m going to play a 200-foot game and do what I do.’ Sometimes, you need to be a little bit of a…”
Gallant left that last word to the imagination. He probably didn’t do that with Zibanejad, who had a four-point Game 6 — plus a missed breakaway that prompted him to ask for the tablet on the Rangers bench that Kreider promptly trashed — and then a three-point Game 7, including the tying goal with under six minutes left in regulation.
“He’s probably the most competitive person I’ve ever met in my life,” Kreider said. “He will not let me beat him in ping-pong. When he’s just focusing on winning the game, the impact he has is unbelievable. I tell him all the time, ‘You could not necessarily have that belief and confidence but we have that confidence in you.’ He’s been our horse ever since he got here and no one’s been able to shut him down.”
Zibanejad credited Kreider and his teammates for helping him see what he needed to see in himself.
“We go through this stuff together,” he said. “You go through a tough stretch and you always have your teammates to lean on. It’s a team sport. The things you want to accomplish, to be as good as possible, is all to help the team.”
Zibanejad won’t talk much more about the playoff run. “Last year is last year,” he said. But the lasting effect, aside from raising his profile from being more of a local success story to a league-wide one, may be huge for Zibanjead, just learning to put himself and his game first.
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Not much else will change, though. Zibanejad is a fairly accomplished DJ and he’s played at Swedish music festivals in previous summers. Not this past one, though — not enough time to book a gig when he didn’t know when he’d be settled back home following a long playoff run. So maybe he’ll get back to his offseason passion next summer. But he’s hoping to be too busy once more, the quiet man in the middle, leading the charge.
(Photo by Jared Silber / NHLI via Getty Images)
Arthur Staple has covered New York hockey for The Athletic since 2019, initially on the Islanders beat before moving over to primarily focus on the Rangers in 2021. Previously, he spent 20 years at Newsday, where he covered everything from high schools to the NFL. Follow Arthur on Twitter @stapeathletic
