The three goalie outlook is not as bad as you think
Barring a trade, it looks like the New York Rangers will go into the last two months of the season with a three goalie system. How much work can the trio of netminders expect to get?
The New York Rangers are stuck with one of the most unwieldy roster challenges, three goalies. Unless the Blueshirts are able to work a deadline for one of their goalies (presumably Alexandar Goergiev) they will have to split the workload between Henrik Lundqvist, rookie Igor Shesterkin and Georgiev. How will it work?
The good news is after a very light schedule in January, the Rangers have a very heavy schedule in February, March and one week in April. They play 34 games in 63 days, more than once every other day.
Looking at a strict rotation between the three and assuming that Henrik Lundqvist gets the first start against Detroit at Madison Square Garden on Friday, January 31, he will start 12 games in the rest of the season and Shesterkin and Georgiev will get 11 starts each.
Henrik Lundqvist’s workload
There is no doubt that 12 games in just over nine weeks is a lot less work than Henrik Lundqvist is used to. Here’s his workload in the last 34 games of the season over the last five years:
2018-19: 17 games
2017-19: 21 games
2016-17: 22 games
2015-16: 25 games
2014-15: 7 games
In 2014-15, he suffered a throat injury that kept him out of action for almost two months., returning to action in late March. Cam Talbot started 25 games and MacKenzie Skapski started twice. Every other year, until last season, he shouldered the bulk of the workload.
Lundqvist became the top goaltender in the 2006-07 season and remained so until the 2018-19 season. In 12 years he played in 752 of 950 games for the Rangers, almost 80% of the schedule. Last season and so far this campaign, that percentage has dropped to 59%.
It’s going to be a tough two months for Lundqvist, playing a little over once a week and the question will be how he adapts.
Shesterkin and Georgiev
While the lighter workload will be tough on Lundqvist, it’s completely different for Shesterkin and Georgiev. They have never been in the same situation as the King, starting a majority of their team’s games.
Last season in the KHL, Shesterkin split goaltending duties for SKA St. Petersburg with former Ranger Magnus Hellberg. He played 28 regular season games and added 10 playoff games to go along with three games in international competition. That’s a total of 31 games. This year he has already played 27 games between the Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack.
In fact, Hellberg actually played more games than Shesterkin last year with 34 regular season and ten playoff games.
Alexandar Georgiev started 17 of the last 34 games last season, an even split with Lundqvist. The season before, he started nine games out of 34 when Ondrej Pavlec was injured. He has already appeared in 23 games this season for New York and if he finishes with 44 games that will be similar to his totals the last two seasons.
An off the wall idea
If David Quinn wants to get more work for his goalie trio, there is the option of playing two goalies in a single game. In the pre-season, the games are routinely split between goalies with the switch happening at the halfway mark. While that wouldn’t be realistic in meaningful games, what’s to prevent Quinn from replacing the starting goalie at the start of the third period if the Rangers are winning or trailing by three goals or more?
Realistically, the Rangers shouldn’t entertain this concept if they are still in the battle for a playoff spot, but if they are playing for a lottery pick, it would be a way to keep their netminders busy. It probably won’t happen, but it’s an idea.
It’s not so bad
When considering the amount of play for the team’s two young goalies in their careers, the three goalie system won’t be anywhere near as onerous for them as it will be for Lundqvist. So, Quinn may decided that he might want to give Lundqvist just a bit more of the workload than Shesterkin or Georgiev.
The other issue is how Quinn will handle his goaltending assignments. If he chooses to ride a hot netminder, that could raise all kinds of issues with workload. Also, there are definitely games that certain goalies should start. Those include Georgiev against Toronto and the Islanders and Lundqvist against the Red Wings and Buffalo.
The bottom line is a lot has been made about the carrying three goalies, but with two young goalies and one seasoned veteran, it’s not anywhere near as bad as it could be. Then again, if the Rangers can get a great return for Georgiev at the deadline, this problem will just disappear.
More. A Blueshirts All-Star history. light