Chris Kreider has Jonathan Quick flashbacks with goalie’s LA return: ‘Little bit of trauma

LOS ANGELES It must be unusual for Chris Kreider to go back to the downtown L.A. arena and see Jonathan Quick in his net instead of the one across the rink.

One of the most heartbreaking moments in Chris Kreider’s twelve-year NHL career occurred on the ice at Crypto.com Arena, which Rangers supporters still refer to as the old Staples Center. The Blueshirts lost to Quick and the Kings in Game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

Ten years later, with Quick making his highly anticipated homecoming to L.A. in a Rangers jersey behind him on Saturday, it still pains Kreider to recall what the goalie was like to face as an opponent.

“It’s a little bit of trauma every day that I shoot on him in practice,” Kreider told The Post before the Rangers faced the Kreider, who was 23 years old during the 2014 run and had only been in the league for a short while, actually skated with Quick in the summer in Connecticut.

He couldn’t score on Quick then, either, Kreider said, noting that there was never a lot of net to shoot at with his 6-foot-1, 215-pound frame.

Although they had conversed casually, they had not been as close as they have since Quick signed a $925,000, one-year contract with the Rangers in the winter. All Kreider knew was that Quick was on his way to being the best goaltender born in the United States, if he wasn’t already.

Recalling that series, Kreider called Quick the lifeblood of the 2014 Kings squad. The guys in front of him battled valiantly, and he made important, significant saves.

Quick simply had a weird vibe about him, Kreider remembered. Quick was involved in too many significant moments to mention, but Kreider also had his share.

Trailing 1-0 in the second period of Game 5 in 2014, the Rangers had multiple bodies swarming the net in an attempt to even the score. And yet Quick, who shut out the Rangers in Game 3, stood tall.

That was until Kreider posted up in front of him on the power play and tapped in a centering feed from Ryan McDonagh to knot the game at one-all. Of course, everyone knows how that story ends, but Kreider will always have that goal on Quick.

Kreider remarked, “I kind of expected him to get a pad on it.” Every time I felt like I had an open net during a two-on-one, his leg would suddenly cross it. He’s performing a full split. Every time we did defeat him, it seemed to find the post, which is, in my opinion, simply an indication of a goaltender who is really, really on his angles.That was also how he was all the time. You can beat him, but it won’t get through. Instead of post and in, it’s post and out. He was truly performing at his best. You also have to, in my opinion, appreciate how he plays. He has a really distinct aesthetic.

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