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#Fifty goals a fitting feat for the homegrown Chris Kreider

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“Fifty goals a fitting feat for the homegrown Chris Kreider”

Did. You. See!

Did. You. See. Chris!

Did. You. See. Chris. Score. No. 50!

It came at 18:22 of the third period at the Garden on Tuesday, it came in front and it came on a six-on-five, extra attacker situation in a 4-2 defeat to the ’Canes that dashed hopes for a first-place finish and dampened the celebration for and around the fourth 50-goal scorer in franchise history and the first by a home-grown Blueblood.

There was Vic Hadfield getting his 49th and 50th in the final game of the 1971-72 season, then Adam Graves getting 52 on his way to hoisting the Cup in 1993-94, and then Jaromir Jagr busting the franchise record with 54 in 2005-06.

And now there is Kreider, this Kid K who at age 20 joined the Blueshirts for the 2012 playoffs within a week of winning the national championship in his junior season for Boston College, spent a spell in the AHL in each of the next two seasons before making it back to Broadway for good in October of 2013.

And now he is a member of the cherished 50-goal circle. I don’t know that anyone could ever have seen this coming. I don’t know that anyone could have conceived of Kreider becoming the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals for the first time in at least his 10th season after never before scoring as many as 30. You know the first to achieve that fate? It was Hadfield, 50 years and 10 days ago.

So this magical season in which Kreider has established a franchise record with 24 power-play goals — and counting — pretty much snuck up on everyone. But after having scored twice in Saturday’s playoff-clincher over Ottawa to reach 49, everyone began thinking about the next one.

Chris Kreider celebrates his 50th goal of the season.

“To be honest, I’m just glad it’s over because I think it was on other people’s minds,” said Kreider, who has spoken eloquently throughout the season of the community feel to the Rangers’ room. “We’ve got a lot of really good guys who were pulling for me; unbelievable teammates.

“I could feel guys looking for me. [The Hurricanes] play a tight man-to-man and my good buddy Brett Pesce was tight to me a lot of the times and guys were looking for me. I told Mika [Zibanejad] that I felt like a shooting guard a lot of the night trying to work myself through picks and get open but that’s how they play defense.

“I think it’s better for the whole team now that we can go back to playing hockey and taking what the other team gives us,” said Kreider, who had two shots on four attempts in 20:24 of ice time. “Like I said, we’ve got some absolutely incredible people in that room who are pulling for me.

“That means the world to me. But now they can go back to shooting the puck and I can go back to screening the goalie.”

Kreider is the senior Ranger, one of three current members (with Zibanejad and Alex Georgiev) to have been here before The Letter and before the rebuild/reload/reset. He is becoming prominent on the franchise all-time lists, his 227 career goals ranking 11th in club history, one behind Hall of Famer Bill Cook.

He had been a streaky scorer throughout a career in which he was known to internalize to extremes and heap extraordinary pressure on himself. When he wasn’t scoring, he wasn’t especially visible. That’s when it was appropriate to want to know, Did. You. See. Chris?

But that was then. The longest drought this season has been five games, as he has turned net-front presence into an art form where he uses his stick blade for angled deflections as if it is a protractor.

More than that, though, Kreider has evolved not only into a 50-goal scorer — 50! — but he has transformed himself into a Zen-like personality. He has lived his life well as a Ranger, has always been an upstanding and caring member of the community.

More than four years ago, in late December of 2017, a blood clot was discovered in Kreider’s right arm that led to a surgical procedure known as a rib resection. There was no guarantee that Kreider would be able to resume his career. Of course, he was back on the ice under two months after the operation.

“At this point I consider it a blessing,” Kreider, who will turn 31 on April 30, told The Post earlier in the season. “I didn’t realize at the time how scary it actually was and to be able to come back and playing hockey, I was just so appreciative of that fact. It is part of my narrative now. It changed my perspective.”

You know what else is part of the narrative? Fifty.

Did. You. See. Chris!

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