If there was no lockout, Kreider would have been playing in Los Angeles on Friday when the Kings raised their Stanley Cup banner.

But as it was, he and his fellow Ranger farmhands were at the darkened XL Center here, introduced to an enthusiastic crowd (generously announced at 8,148) before playing the Islanders’ farm club, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Once the puck was dropped, Kreider tore into the Bridgeport zone on the forecheck and the fans chanted, “Let’s go, Whale!” Connecticut would lose, 6-4, with Kreider providing one assist.

Pro hockey was back in North America.

Last spring, under the pressure of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the intense scrutiny of Coach John Tortorella, the New York news media and Rangers fans, Kreider remained poised, scoring five goals — an N.H.L. record for a player who had not appeared in a regular-season game.

He is as skilled and lightning fast as ever, scoring four goals in two exhibition games with the Whale. And he seems looser now that he is on a somewhat more prosaic stage. Still, he projects a certain guardedness when asked if an A.H.L. October in Hartford is any different from a playoff May in New York.