Nearly 24 hours later, the anguish in Chris Kreider’s voice was palpable.
“I mean, I was standing right there. I didn’t think there was anything. I thought maybe we were going to get a tripping call when he fell, there was no big collision,” said No. 20. “By then I was in the other corner.
“And I could hear him. I could hear him scream.”
Kreider spoke even more softly than usual when I asked him about the human effect of Blake Wheeler’s season-ending — and potentially career-ending — lower right leg injury he suffered on what seemed to be a nothingburger of a play midway through the first period of Thursday’s match at the Garden against Montreal.
“I texted with him today but I can’t say anything concrete about how he’s doing or handling this,” said Kreider, who first played with Wheeler for Team USA in the 2011 World Championships. “It’s hard to glean emotional context with a text message.
“I’ve known him a long time. He’s the consummate professional, has been incredibly successful in his career and very popular among his teammates. He’s like a father figure in our room who chose come to our team to win the Stanley Cup.
“Regardless what it looks like going forward, it’s a massive loss for the group,” Kreider said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
The Rangers placed the 37-year-old Wheeler on long-term injured reserve Friday. The team is holding out the possibility that the 16-year NHL veteran might be able to make it back for the later rounds of the playoffs if all goes swimmingly for all parties. But that is an extremely unlikely scenario.
Cold type makes it seem cold-hearted. It is not that way at all. But life, business and the schedule goes on. Kreider and the Rangers skated at MetLife on Friday in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s outdoor game against the Islanders. Line combinations were created — one with Jimmy Vesey taking Wheeler’s spot on the right with Kreider and Mika Zibanejad — as the calendar flipped from one day to the next.
“To be honest, I kind of had a sick feeling seeing it,” Vesey told The Post. “I think about myself that I am pretty perceptive in situations so there’s been a lot going through my mind about what this means for his future since the play happened.
“He’s an older guy who has played a long time in this league and came here to try to win,” said No. 26. “He’s been a great teammate, a great leader and a great voice in our locker room so to see him go down in that fashion made me sick.”
This is the second season-ending injury the Rangers have had to absorb not only this season but within the last month with Filip Chytil ruled out for the season Jan. 28 after suffering a setback in his recovery from the concussion he sustained Nov. 2.
There’s been a vacancy at center. There is now a vacancy on right wing. But Chytil’s and Wheeler’s absences strike home far deeper than that. Their careers are at stake. So are their futures.
“I talked to him a little bit last night, but it was really tough to know what to say,” said Jacob Trouba, who was Wheeler’s teammate in Winnipeg for six years and his closest comrade on the club. “I just said that I’m there for you and want to help any way that I can.
“It’s obviously a difficult situation for him and for most of the guys on our team. You don’t know if this is his last year, you don’t know if this was his last game. All those things come into your head.
“And for me, he’s a guy I grew up looking up to in my first few years, he helped a ton and having him here this year has been great for me to see the growth and maturity from both of us over the years,” said the captain. “It was tough to see for me, probably more than anybody else because of our history.”
This is pro sports. Guys get hurt. Gals get hurt. The first instinct is to measure the impact on the athlete or the team, not the individual. That’s life in an industry where folks root for laundry. But there are those times where one can step back and embrace the bigger picture.
“Watching Fil’s situation unfold as it did, you’re with a guy for so many years, he’s making strides, he’s getting better and then he has that setback and it hurt to see that,” Trouba said. “Obviously we’re here to play hockey but it’s Fil’s life and Fil’s future.
“It’s the same kind of feeling with Wheels.”
This can be a dangerous game. Players put themselves at risk every time they step onto the ice. Of course this is what they sign up for, they are not enlisting with the military entering a combat zone, but danger lurks even when a play is as innocent as can be.
“It’s part of the game. Nobody did anything wrong,” Trouba said. “There are moments where you recognize that this isn’t easy and there are hard things that can happen and it can always be you.
“So you look out for the other guy the way you want people to look out for you.”