Rangers are better, but Igor Shesterkin must lift his game in playoffs
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin looks on after Kings right wing Viktor Arvidsson scored in the second period of an NHL game at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 26. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In terms of the sheer “wow” factor of bringing in not one but two star right wings in Vladimir Tarasenko and future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane, one could argue that the Rangers had the best trade deadline of anyone in the NHL.
Yes, Boston, far and away the NHL’s top team this season, sent a message when it acquired defenseman Dmitry Orlov and gritty forward Garnet Hathaway from surprisingly aggressive seller Washington. Toronto getting Ryan O’Reilly from St. Louis impressed everyone and the surprising Devils landed Sharks sniper Timo Meier.
We also can’t sleep on the Islanders’ early move to get Bo Horvat, which seemed to provide the jolt they needed to get back in playoff contention.
But getting Tarasenko and Kane, a three-time Cup winner and the fourth-leading United States-born scorer in NHL history? And improving the defense by adding Niko Mikkola? And bringing back Tyler Motte to give the fourth line some bite? That is a lot of improvement for one team to make at one deadline.
“You look at our team on paper and I think we have a really good team,’’ center Vincent Trocheck, who got the assignment of skating between Kane and Artemi Panarin, said Wednesday night after the Rangers’ overtime victory over Philadelphia in the last game of the pre-Kane era. “It’s just a matter of us putting it all together and not just thinking we’re going to go out there and win games because we have a lot of talent. We’re going to have to work at it.’’
The Rangers lost their first game with Kane on Thursday, falling to the Senators, 5-3, at the Garden after carrying a 3-2 lead into the third period. Kane and Panarin had a few moments when they made some clever passes to each other and created some chances. But it’s a work in progress. They’ve got 20 more games to get it together before the playoffs begin.
The challenge will be to translate what’s on paper to the ice, something coach Gerard Gallant said on Wednesday. “[There’s] a lot of skill, a lot of talent, but you’ve got to do it on the ice,’’ he said. “It’s a real good team on paper, and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to play hard and compete hard and do it on the ice.’’
And he’s right, of course. Stanley Cups aren’t won on paper. They’re won on the ice by teams that find a way to elevate their game in the playoffs, find unexpected heroes within their roster, shed blood willingly, avoid major injuries and score huge, timely goals.
Oh, and get superior goaltending.
Igor Shesterkin got the night off Thursday as Jaroslav Halak played. But Shesterkin will be the main man down the stretch and in the playoffs, and the Rangers are going to need him to be a lot closer to the goalie he was last season than the one he’s been for most of this season.
Because while adding Kane and Tarasenko gives the Rangers an explosive top-six forward group and the Kid Line of Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko gives them a really good top nine, the way they’re built, they’re going to give up some chances every game. And Shesterkin is going to have to bail them out sometimes.
Shesterkin has a fine record this season, 27-10-7. But his 2.63 goals-against average is not spectacular, nor is his .910 save percentage. Last season, he had a 2.07 GAA and a .935 save percentage.
In the final analysis, it doesn’t really matter how many goals a goaltender gives up, or how many saves he makes, as long as he helps his team win the game. Gallant will be OK with winning games 9-8 if that’s what it takes.
But games like Thursday illustrate that the Rangers aren’t going to go very far if they’re all offense and little defense.
Halak played fine in stopping 29 of 33 shots he faced. He made some excellent saves, and none of the goals he gave up were soft.
But when you have guys like Panarin and Kane and Tarasenko who like to play east-west hockey and who aren’t known as great defensive forwards, you’re going to need your goalie to cover up more than a few mistakes.
So if the Rangers are going to go far this spring, Shesterkin is going to have to make a few more unbelievable saves than he has thus far this season. And he’s going to have to cut down on the number of questionable goals he allows.
Otherwise, it won’t matter how well they did at the trade deadline.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.