New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider scored his 50th goal of the season in a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. Kreider joins Vic Hadfield (1971-72), Adam Graves (1993-94) and Jaromir Jagr (2005-06) as the fourth Ranger to ever reach 50 goals in a single season.

Kreider has set career highs in goals and points (72) this season and is the third NHL skater to reach the 50-goal mark after Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl. The No. 19 pick of the 2009 NHL Draft, the 30-year-old winger has 418 points in 648 games over 10 NHL seasons spent entirely with the Rangers.

The Rangers are 47-20-6 and second in the Metropolitan Division. They clinched a playoff spot last Saturday with a 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.

(Photo: Dennis Schneidler / USA TODAY Sports)

What does this milestone mean?

Arthur Staple, New York hockey columnist: It means a lot to anyone who follows the Rangers. A team with 95 seasons in the NHL and now just four 50-goal scorers? Yeah, it's big. It means even more that it's Kreider, the first homegrown Ranger to reach 50 and the longest-tenured Ranger on the current roster by a wide margin.

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What's made him so prolific this season?

Staple: It's that old-timey hockey cliche: Consistency. Kreider hadn't gotten above 28 goals in any of his previous nine seasons simply by disappearing for too many stretches. He's always had the physical tools and the ability to withstand the heat of being a net-front presence, but he was never able to do it for long enough. This season, aided by a proper season alongside Mika Zibanejad and as part of one of the best power plays in the league, he's been at a high level from day one.

Where does Kreider rank among the all-time Ranger greats?

Staple: He's in that tier with some long-ago Rangers who never won a Stanley Cup — the likes of Vic Hadfield, the first Rangers 50-goal scorer, and Jean Ratelle. Probably a notch below the Ranger legends who were drafted by the club (Rod Gilbert, Brian Leetch, Henrik Lundqvist) and Mark Messier. But two more goals puts Kreider in the top 10 in club history. He's got room to move up this list.

What are the playoff expectations for this team?

Staple: Despite Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the division-leading Hurricanes, the Rangers have been playing a playoff brand of hockey for a little while now. Their underlying data has been among the league's best since the trade deadline and they've dispelled the narrative that they are being bailed out nightly by Igor Shesterkin. This is a team that could be a real threat in the East.

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