Igor Shesterkin makes All-Star team for first time
Alexis Lafreniere of the Rangers shoots the puck against the Devils at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 28, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
MONTREAL — Goaltender Igor Shesterkin on Thursday night was named as the Rangers’ representative to the NHL All-Star Game, which will be played in Sunrise, Florida, on Feb. 4.
Shesterkin has an 18-6-5 record, a 2.43 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. He is tied for third in the league in wins and is 10th in the league in GAA.
He was chosen a season after winning the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender. He also was a finalist for the Hart Trophy, given to the league’s Most Valuable Player.
Despite having the best season of any goaltender in 2021-22, he was not chosen to the All-Star team last season.
Shesterkin, who turned 27 on Dec. 30, served as the backup to Jaroslav Halak on Thursday night in Montreal.
Ups, downs for Chytil
Filip Chytil scored two goals Thursday but was disappointed to see the final score of the gold-medal game in the World Junior tournament up on the video board: The Czech Republic lost to Canada in overtime, 3-2.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever scored two goals and won the game and still felt sad,’’ Chytil said. “When I saw the score, I was almost crying. But I think they earned respect from everybody from the hockey world, and I’m happy for them.’’
Lafreniere is hot topic
Hometown boy Alexis Lafreniere was swarmed by local media at the morning skate. The fact that the former No. 1 overall pick was scratched for a game against Tampa Bay last week was a topic of discussion at Gerard Gallant’s pregame media briefing.
Gallant insisted that scratching Lafreniere for one game doesn’t mean they are unhappy with him. Gallant did concede that the pressure on Lafreniere to produce big scoring numbers is high, given his draft status.
“You’ve got to put that away,’’ Gallant said of dealing with media pressure. “You can’t worry about [media] people . . . We’re not in there yelling at him and saying, ‘You’ve got to be better, you’ve got to do this.’ . . . I think he’s going to be a great player. But there’s guys in front of him right now and it makes it tough for most kids.’’
Lafreniere played 13:29 and had one shot on goal.
Brodzinski unavailable
Forward Jonny Brodzinski left the team after his wife went into labor Thursday. With Brodzinski unavailable, the Rangers called up forward Gustav Rydahl from Hartford to serve as the extra forward.
Rydahl (6-3, 209) has four goals, five assists and 24 penalty minutes in 24 games for Hartford, with a plus-2 rating.
Rydahl and defenseman Libor Hajek were the healthy scratches.
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.
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