Rangers look forward to getting started with new coach Peter Laviolette

STAMFORD, Conn. – Three months after the Rangers’ season ended abruptly with a Game 7 loss to the Devils in New Jersey in the first round of the playoffs, Chris Kreider is still bothered by the way things finished.

“I'm still [ticked] off,’’ Kreider said Thursday at a hockey fundraiser at the Terry Conners Ice Rink. “But I’m ready to start playing some hockey again.’’

Kreider was one of several big-name NHL players, including several Rangers, taking part in the Shoulder Check Showcase, an event put together to benefit the cause of mental health among young people. As Kreider lives and works out in Connecticut in the summers, he was the one sending the texts out to several of his teammates in the area to come and play in the fundraiser. And teammates Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad and Barclay Goodrow answered the call.

For the four Rangers, it was the first time any had spoken publicly about the Blueshirts’ new coach, Peter Laviolette, who was hired in June to replace Gerard Gallant, who left the team days after its playoff elimination. All of them have spoken to Laviolette, though Fox is the only one among them to have met him in person.

“I met him around the rink,’’ Fox said. “Nothing too in depth.’’

“I don't know too much’’ about Laviolette, Fox admitted. “I think that's one of those when you get to camp, you learn what someone's about, whether it be a new teammate, (or) a new coach, and take it from there.’’

Goodrow said he reached out to players around the league he knows to get the lowdown on the new coach, and everything he heard was good.

“Everyone who I've talked to loved playing for him,’’ he said.

Goodrow said that in his two conversations with Laviolette, he didn’t talk about hockey at all.

“Just kind of getting to know each other as people,’’ he said. “He's a big believer in family, and he cares about not only the player, but then the person behind the player. So (we’re) just trying to build relationships.’’

Kreider said he isn’t sure what he wants to hear from Laviolette when he does get to meet him face-to-face. He says he’ll be “going in with an open mind.’’

“I've heard tremendous things,’’ he said. “His teams play very hard. And that's the kind of thing that stuck with me whenever we played against teams that he's coached. They're incredibly competitive, and they take away time and space. There's never an easy night when you play against the team that he's coaching, so I think that's a big part of our identity going forward.’’

“It's going to be, probably different, structure-wise, in the way he wants the team to play,’’ Zibanejad said. “And then obviously, I'm sure he knows most of us and how we play, and how we can use our strengths to the system, and go from there.

“When we come into training camp, we’ll see how it is,’’ he said. “I don't expect my game to change, by any means… but definitely, there’ll be some change in the team structure.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.