(Photo : (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)) NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 08: Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers sprays water on his head throughout a cease in play within the first interval in opposition to the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden on January 08, 2024 in New York City.
Recently one of many standards-bearers in NHL goaltending, New York Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin has been uncharacteristically poor this season.
Shesterkin broke on to the scene in 2020 and commenced his profession by posting save percentages of .932, .916, .935, and .916 once more in his first 4 seasons.
The begin to his profession felt very very similar to a Favre-to-Rodgers degree transition of franchise goaltenders after the Rangers noticed longtime famous person Henrik Lundqvist retire.
There continues to be each cause to imagine that Shesterkin is that degree of franchise goalie, however his efficiency this season has put the Rangers in severe peril of not successful the division after a scorching scorching begin.
Igor Shesterkin’s Nightmarish January in New York
Since the calendar flipped to 2024, it is no exaggeration to say that Shesterkin has been the worst beginning goalie within the NHL.
His .863 save share in that point span is especially abysmal, and in keeping with Natural Stat Trick, he’s final within the league with -9.83 targets saved above common throughout that point.
It’s not one thing any group with playoff aspirations can stand up to from their beginning goalie, however the issue is exacerbated for the Rangers by the truth that the group is generally constructed round Shesterkin’s potential to place up elite numbers.
The Rangers haven’t been in a position to outscore these points both. New York went to Ottawa and pounded the Senators on Saturday, however that solely ran their January document as much as 5-7-2.
The Rangers entered the 12 months with the league’s greatest document and a really wholesome lead within the Metropolitan Division, however they’re now eighth within the league in factors and have seen the Carolina Hurricanes storm inside two factors, with a recreation in hand within the division.
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Can the Rangers discover a repair?
As lengthy as Shesterkin is struggling, the Rangers are going to wish to search out extra juice offensively to get by.
That would imply extra manufacturing from heart Mika Zibanejad and winger Chris Kreider, who’ve struggled to hold the load offensively whereas Artemi Panarin is having arguably the very best season of his profession.
Zibanejad scored only one aim in all of January whereas Kreider largely struggled exterior of massive nights in opposition to bottom-feeding groups like Ottawa and Anaheim.
The group may additionally stand to tighten up defensively as effectively. It hasn’t been an enormous subject, as Natural Stat Trick has the Blueshirts in the course of the pack in 5-on-5 anticipated targets in opposition to per 60 minutes, however a group with a primary like Adam Fox with Stanley Cup aspirations ought to be capable of restrict high quality sufficient to crack the highest 10.
Shesterkin will flip it round in some unspecified time in the future, and fortuitously for him and the membership the stakes should not overly excessive in the mean time.
The Rangers and Hurricanes are to date forward of the remainder of the Metropolitan, with the Devils, Islanders, Flyers, and Penguins mired in abject mediocrity, {that a} second-round showdown between New York and Carolina feels considerably inevitable.
The stakes for now are making certain the group would not fall beneath any of the opposite Metro rivals whereas making an attempt to take care of first within the division to get dwelling ice for that potential matchup with the Hurricanes.
Still, letting this fester for too lengthy may show disastrous for morale even when the group would not fall beneath that second seed.
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