Igor Shesterkin's superb play of late is a good sign for Rangers
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the Rangers looks on during the second period against the Seattle Kraken at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
As they headed out west Wednesday for four games in six days over the next week, the Rangers were in a good place – and not just because they were going to be escaping the frigid weather in New York.
No, the Rangers could feel good as they flew to Las Vegas for Thursday’s game against the Golden Knights because they had won their last two games after they had lost four straight.
In Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Seattle Kraken, there were plenty of signs that after an extended malaise, the first-place Blueshirts (28-13-2) are starting to play the way they did in the first two months of the season during their 18-4-1 start.
For one thing, with Kaapo Kakko back in the lineup and Tyler Pitlick medically cleared to play after missing six games with a lower-body injury, the Rangers are as close to fully healthy as they have been since Filip Chytil was forced out of the lineup in the Nov. 2 game against Carolina.
The second positive sign was getting goals from places other than the Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere line, including two from Blake Wheeler and a much-needed one from Kakko, who has played two strong games since returning from a 21-game absence due to a left leg injury.
But the best sign of all from the last two games was the play of goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who was more than solid in Sunday’s win over Washington and just about spectacular in the win over Seattle.
“I finally started seeing the puck,’’ Shesterkin said after the Seattle win. “We’ve just done a few small changes, fixes, with the goalie coach [Benoit Allaire]. That was about it.’’
Before the last two games, Shesterkin, the Rangers’ All-Star Game representative , had a goals-against average of 2.90, and save percentage of .901, well off his career averages of 2.44 and .921.
And as much as the Rangers kept saying how they had to be better about not giving up so many “Grade A’’ chances and putting their goalies in such vulnerable spots, the fact is, Shesterkin over the years has proven to be able to stop more of those types of chances than not.
But he’s been up and down this season. He went 1-3 and allowed 16 goals in his four starts before the wins over Washington and Seattle. The win came against dreadful Chicago. He had a brutal three-game stretch last month where he was 0-3 while allowing 15 goals from Dec. 5-12.
Against Seattle, he made 29 saves, including stopping all 16 shots he faced in the second period. The Kraken dominated the first 12 or 13 minutes of the period but couldn't score. And many of Shesterkin's saves were the kind of breathtaking stops his teammates have come to expect over his four-and-a-half seasons.
Now, he’s 18-10-0 overall, with a 2.80 GAA and .904 save percentage. And if he is able to play the next three months the way he did the last two games, the Rangers will be in business.
“Every night, he comes up with big saves,’’ defenseman Braden Schneider said of Shesterkin. “And I think the last four games that we were losing, it's not him. He's still making those saves, but we're just giving the other team more chances … We know he's going to make those saves. It's just, we can't let teams do that 20 times a night. Igor is Igor. He's the best in the world.’’
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.
