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.

Day after day, the severity of their situation seemingly does nothing but weigh the Rangers down. Monday afternoon’s 5-0 disaster against the Devils at Prudential Center was no outlier.

Could this be the next domino to fall with the struggling New York Rangers? And after the volatile trade of former captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks and former No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken,

NEWARK, N.J. — Chris Kreider, the longest-tenured Rangers player, was a healthy scratch from the lineup Monday afternoon against the Devils in the final game before the NHL’s Christmas break.