HE'S BACK Igor making ‘silly’ saves Rangers expect
These were the saves that had become normal — the expectation, the backdrop to Rangers’ wins since his Vezina Trophy season — for Igor Shesterkin. A glove deflection on Casey Mittelstadt’s breakaway in overtime. A pair of stops when Mittelstadt, just 20 seconds later Saturday night at the Garden, and Alex Tuch both skated into uncontested shooting lanes.
They’re the “silly” saves, as Chris Kreider described them. The ones that turn into game-defining moments and highlight clips, snapshots that provide a glimpse of the postseason runs this team could make with Shesterkin — and that version of him — in net.
But for the last month, and for most of the regular season, the Rangers’ indispensable, irreplaceable link of their 4-3 overtime victory over Buffalo on Saturday was the missing one. His save percentage and goals against average sat at .916 and 3.02 on Dec. 15, and he’d allowed four or more goals in five of eight starts. Those numbers turned that stretch into one of Shesterkin’s worst. Jonathan Quick, at 37 years old, was the Blueshirts’ better goaltender.
After wins in his last three starts, though, Shesterkin has created a potential turning point for his season. Victories against the Bruins, Maple Leafs and Sabres constructed a foundation. And less than two weeks after Shesterkin navigated one of the worst stretches of his career, when even he couldn’t describe his poor goaltending, he’s “right on point right now,” head coach Peter Laviolette said Saturday.
“He’s played well the last few games, really well,” Laviolette said. “He’s a world-class goalie. … There was a couple of really, really nice saves in the overtime that gave us an opportunity to continue to push inside of the overtime and get the extra point.”
Shesterkin saved all three shots he faced in overtime Saturday, which eventually allowed the Rangers to win when Kreider knocked a pass from Mika Zibanejad into the net. He also made another breakaway save against Tuch in the third period after the Sabres forward stole the puck from Vincent Trocheck.
After reaching a low point against the Maple Leafs on Dec. 12, when he allowed six goals and told reporters postgame that “I don’t know what to say to you, sorry,” Shesterkin’s three-game winning streak has featured a .929 save percentage — bumping his 2023-24 percentage to .906 through 20 starts and providing initial evidence that his early-season struggle was just an anomaly.
“He always gives us a chance to win, and he really bailed us out, I think, throughout the whole game but especially in overtime there,” Zibanejad said Saturday. “Gave us a chance to win. Another big performance for him.”
But prior to the past 10 days, Shesterkin’s performances were defined by inconsistencies. Laviolette and Quick wouldn’t label it lost confidence or a rough patch, but the Blueshirts’ coach acknowledged the reality that — mostly due to their upcoming schedule with back-to-backs — Quick, who has started the season 9-1-1, could get more starts.
The Rangers had figured out the answer to just about everything else throughout the first two months of their season. An offseason coaching change led to immediate results and a lift to the top of the standings. They navigated — and overcame —injuries that removed Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, as well as Adam Fox in November, from the lineup. The Blueshirts had a breakout star (Alexis Lafreniere) and veterans rediscovering some of their youthful spark (Quick, Blake Wheeler), too.
But their staple in net, their starter for 50-plus games from the past two campaigns, remained a puzzling concern. Shesterkin missed four games due to general soreness in November, and his results dipped after he returned, spiraling all the way until the six-goal catastrophe against the Maple Leafs.
So maybe this is just another three-game stretch, the ebb and flow of an NHL season producing a promising swing after a disastrous one. Maybe there will be some regression. Maybe it’ll just be that type of season for Shesterkin.
Or, perhaps, it’s a spark that could ignite one of his vintage runs. In that case, the Rangers’ most pressing, unanswered question would have finally generated the most anticipated solution.
“Hate to say we expect those things out of him,” Trocheck said Saturday, “but with how well he’s played his entire career, it’s almost expected.”