ST. LOUIS — Chris Kreider is an old soul.
The Rangers winger does newspaper crossword puzzles and plays cards on the team plane. He is a student of languages, fluent in Russian and Spanish (and working on more). He happily has no social media presence and has been uncomfortable in the spotlight since the moment he arrived on Broadway fresh off a national championship at Boston College in the spring of 2012.
So it is not lip service when the 28-year-old has said throughout this final year of his contract that he is not focused on what might happen to him before the Feb.