Rangers know they need more than just Igor Shesterkin to stay alive
SUNRISE, Fla. — Here’s what bodes well for the Rangers as they prepare to face elimination for the first time on Saturday night.
Igor Shesterkin has been the best goaltender of these playoffs, not just by the eye test, but by the stats.
Shesterkin’s 14.4 goals saved above expected, per Evolving Hockey, leads netminders in the postseason, and his .924 save percentage is the best amongst goaltenders still playing.
Here’s the bad news: the Panthers already knocked out the only guy whose save percentage was better than Shesterkin in these playoffs when they beat Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins.
There is nobody more capable of stealing a victory in a win-or-the-season-ends Game 6 than Shesterkin.
But likewise, the Rangers know better than most franchises that having the best goalie can’t get you all the way there.
“It’s good goaltending. We’re getting outstanding goaltending,” Adam Fox said after Game 5. “You want to get a little more goal support, especially tonight.”
Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy in 2022 and, after a rocky first round, helped get the Rangers exactly as far as they are right now — Game 6 of the conference finals, on the road, against a team from Florida. He kept them in that one throughout, making save after save with a worn-out side in front of him, but it wasn’t enough against Tampa Bay.
Before him, Henrik Lundqvist kept the Rangers standing game after game, season after season, playoffs after playoffs.
But the Rangers only made one Cup Final with No. 30 in nets, and lost that one to the guy who’s currently Shesterkin’s backup, Jonathan Quick.
History — and specifically the recent history of the Rangers — says that great goaltending is a crucial piece of the puzzle, but it can’t be the whole thing.
Shesterkin can’t score the puck.
He can’t fix the struggling power play. He can’t get the Rangers to come out harder in the third period.
What he can do is exactly what he has done.
In a series during which Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad didn’t score their first points until Thursday night, Artemi Panarin is still waiting to get a goal and Fox hasn’t looked quite right, Shesterkin is the superstar pulling his weight and then some.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Rangers in the NHL playoffs
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- Rangers eliminated by Panthers in Game 6 as long playoff run falls short of Stanley Cup
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Shesterkin, per Natural Stat Trick, has faced 77 high-danger chances to Sergei Bobrovsky’s 51 and saved 92.21 percent of them to Bobrovsky’s 86.27.
He has faced more shots in all but one game — and in the last three, it has been by margins of 14, 17 and 10.
He has stood up to that pressure admirably, helping the Rangers to an overtime win in Game 3 and within a hair’s width in Games 4 and 5.
At least most of the time, though, it’s hard to win games if the goalie has to be the best player.
The Rangers know they need to be better in front of Shesterkin.
“Win a game. Win one game,” Kreider said. “Play our best game and give ourselves a chance.”
The security blanket represented by the netminder, though, isn’t going anywhere.
And even if that can’t give the Rangers a win on its own, it is good reason to believe they have a shot.
