Article on Kreider it today's Daily News, it's becoming a daily occurance, this one has a little more BC flavor:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/rangers/chris-krieder-shows-ny-rangers-a-quick-study-article-1.1072330Chris Kreider shows NY Rangers he is a quick study in Stanley Cup playoffs
Boston College student is helping Blueshirts graduate
By Pat Leonard / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, May 3, 2012, 10:15 PM
WASHINGTON – Chris Kreider cut off his first interview in the Garden locker room before it began, whispering to a Rangers PR rep on the morning of April 12 that he’d prefer to move the media throng outside, away from his new teammates.
Kreider told the Daily News days later he didn’t want to look like a big-shot rookie who thought he was greater than the group.
“I’m impressed that he thought of that,” said Rangers center Brian Boyle, a former Boston College standout like Kreider.
“I didn’t know that,” defenseman Marc Staal said, nodding.
“Yeah, that’s not me,” Kreider said of craving attention.
OK, so who are you, Chris?
That locker-room scene “speaks volumes,” as Kreider’s college coach, Jerry York, said of his former star winger’s demeanor and maturity level. And Kreider’s two game-winning goals and three points in eight playoff games to start his NHL career have attracted so much of a spotlight, there is no longer an empty room where he can slide off.
But how did Kreider get from his hometown of Boxford, Mass., to the Big Apple, drafted 19th overall by the Rangers in 2009 before debuting this April?
“Stay busy, and stay focused,” said Kreider, who spent two years at Masconomet Regional High School in Massachusetts, two years at Phillips Andover Academy and three years at Boston College, where he is four credits away from graduating with a degree in communications .
“I don’t think it’s just education so much as doing your best and trying your hardest at everything you do, making the most of the opportunities that you have,” Kreider said of his priorities. “Not wasting the gifts God gave you.”
So he’s religious.
“A little bit, yeah,” Kreider said Tuesday at the Garden. “More spiritual than religious. My mom – I mean, we probably don’t get to church as much as we’d like. Especially when we were younger – a lot of Sunday morning hockey games, and my sister plays a lot of Sunday morning soccer games.”
Kreider’s parents, Kathy and David, and his younger sister Katie have respectfully removed themselves from the public eye as Chris has won a second NCAA national championship, signed with the Rangers, accelerated onto their top lines and turned 21 years old, all within a month.
He played “everything” as a kid growing up in Charlestown, a half-hour south of Boxford, and began skating at age 6. Kreider wasn’t a hockey player who dabbled elsewhere. He was an all-around athlete. He played soccer all the way up until his junior year of high school. He picked up lacrosse his freshman year and had opportunities to play on grass at the college level.
“The NFL talks about drafting athletes and not any specific position,” said York, who has won five NCAA national titles in 40 seasons as a head coach, including four at BC. “They move linebackers to tight end, or switch things all around. Chris was like that — a real athlete — and now he’s becoming a hockey player.”
York actually called Kreider a “late developer, hockey-wise.”
“He never really was the best 12-year-old, the best 14-year-old, the best 16-year-old,” York said. “But as he got to be 17, 18, he really started to develop his hockey skills. He could have just as easily been a tailback on a football team.”
Kreider said until college and two turns with U.S. teams at the World Junior Championships and World Championships in 2010 and 2011, he was never forced to play within a team concept. He was the exceptional to the rule.
“In prep school, it was go get the puck and try to score,” he said, smiling – a 21-year-old remembering the good ol’ days. “It was a lot of fun offensively, but it’s not really hockey. We had a system and concept at Andover, but I didn’t always play within it, I guess. I was fast enough to get away with stuff that I definitely couldn’t get away with in college or the pro level.”
“I remember when I first skated with him, after he had just been drafted by the Rangers,” said Tommy Cross, Boston College’s senior defenseman and captain. “He was just like a hybrid. He wasn’t like anyone else I’ve ever seen. And I was taken by his speed, obviously.”
Everyone notices Kreider’s speed, but it’s his size and strength that will probably keep him in the NHL.
“I’m a little bit of a meathead,” Kreider said, laughing as he recounted the competitive weightlifting he and his teammates did two-to-three times per week at BC. Kreider is 6-3, 230 pounds, but he said he entered college in the fall of 2009 at just 6-2, 200.
“He was 200 pounds? That might be generous,” Cross joked. “But now, the kid’s a freak. He’s an animal. He’s every bit of 230 pounds, and he put the work into it.”
So he’s spiritual and driven, he lifts weights, does his homework, practices hard and possesses enough natural ability to excel at any sport he chooses. Kreider sounds a bit like a Marine in plain clothes. But according to his college roommate, BC hockey video coordinator Samson Lee, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“The best part about him is he’s just like anyone else,” Lee said. “He’s just a kid. He plays Xbox – Call of Duty, NHL, you name it. It’s weird seeing him out there, because when he gets off the ice, it’s just Chris. It’s almost surreal.”
Back in the dorm room, there is a distinct separation between Lee’s quarters and Kreider’s. Lee, who is from Vancouver, has his walls decked out with Canucks gear and memorabilia and a Canadian flag over the bed. Hanging above Kreider’s bed is an American flag with hockey jerseys lining the wall, their passions and countries coexisting in Chestnut Hill.
Rocketed from modular furniture to the Garden locker room in just days, Kreider unlaces his skates Tuesday morning, one day after the Rangers lost, 2-1, in Game 2 to the Capitals on Kreider’s 21st birthday.
A reporter walks by and asks: “Chris, how was your birthday?”
Kreider looks up and, expressionless, responds: “We lost.”
That’s the “stay focused” part.
