Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin injured, oneut one to two weeks
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin reacts after Pittsburgh Penguins center Philip Tomasino scored a power-play goal in the second period of an NHL game at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Good thing the Rangers are heading into a two-week break, because goalie Igor Shesterkin is going to miss one to two weeks with an upper-body injury.
The undisclosed injury may have occurred during the first period of Friday night’s 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh. Shesterkin played the entire game.
Jonathan Quick, who already had been scheduled to start on Saturday, was in net against the Blue Jackets in the Rangers’ last game before the break for the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
The Rangers return to action on Feb. 22 at Buffalo. Dylan Garand was called up from Hartford to back up Quick.
“You don’t like to see that,” coach Peter Laviolette said before Saturday night’s game. “You don’t want to see any of our players go down with injury. But there is a little bit of time coming up here . . . that’s useful. There’s no games being played. So that’s a useful thing.”
Shesterkin, who was on injured reserve earlier this season with an upper-body injury, spoke with trainers during the first period on Friday after a scramble in front of his net.
Friday’s loss at the Garden was a devastating one for the Rangers. The Penguins were without the injured Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
After the game, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox all walked over from the Rangers’ dressing room to meet with Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan outside the visitors’ locker room.
Sullivan is the coach of the USA team that will be taking part in the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston over the next two weeks, and the four players are part of the squad. They needed to go over some logistics for the tournament, for which the NHL is shutting down play for the next two weeks while teams from the USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland compete in the first “best-on-best’’ international hockey tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Saturday night’s final game before the break was an important one in terms of the Rangers’ chances of making the playoffs, with the Blue Jackets one of the teams they are battling for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The game was especially big for the Rangers after Friday’s loss.
“Get two points,’’ Fox said of the Rangers’ mindset Saturday night. “We’re in no position to be not doing everything we can for two points, and especially against a team that’s right there [in the battle for the playoffs] against us.’’
The Rangers entered Saturday with a 26-24-4 record and 56 points, which was five behind the Red Wings, who held the second wild-card spot. Columbus (26-21-8, 60) was one point behind the Wings. Detroit (28-22-5, 61) lost at home to the Lightning (30-20-4, 64) in an afternoon game Saturday.
The Rangers, Blue Jackets, Islanders, Red Wings, Bruins and Senators are part of a massive 10-team scramble for the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.
Having won the Presidents’ Trophy last season by posting the best record in the regular season, the Rangers never expected to be in this position. But from the beginning, this season clearly was different from last, even though the team’s roster was nearly the same.
Things started off well enough, 12-4-1 through the first 17 games, but then came a stunning 4-15 stretch that dropped them into last place in the Metropolitan Division.
General manager Chris Drury made a couple of big trades, dealing away captain Jacob Trouba and young forward Kaapo Kakko in December, and things seemed to turn around at the start of the new year. The Rangers went 8-3-3 in January and then Drury made another big deal, this one to acquire center J.T. Miller from Vancouver. The Rangers were 2-2 in Miller’s first four games with the team and entered Saturday 10-5-3 in 2025.
After Saturday, the Rangers have 27 games left, which may be just enough time if they can continue to pick up their game and gain the ground they need to get into the playoffs. Eight of their first nine games coming out of the break will be against Eastern Conference opponents and six of those are against teams they are competing with for a wild-card spot.
“We talk about them like they’re four-point games, really,’’ said Kreider, meaning that if the Rangers win in regulation time, they not only get two points but deprive the opponent of two points. “So every game is important. Every game you get two points [for a win], but it certainly carries a little more weight when you’re playing a divisional opponent, especially one who’s also in the race.’’
The Rangers will be off until Feb. 18, when teams are allowed to return to practice after 2 p.m.
With Colin Stephenson
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
