Less than three weeks to the trade deadline and that mean every move the New York Rangers make will generate headlines and speculation. They made two such moves on Tuesday.
The New York Rangers had a practice on Tuesday following their 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday night. There were a couple lineup announcements that caused immediate speculation.
Shesterkin to start
The first big move was that Igor Shesterkin is getting the start on Wednesday night against Toronto. This was a surprise considering Alexandar Georgiev’s prior success against the Maple Leafs. He has had two of his best NHL games against Toronto.
Shesterkin will start tomorrow vs. Toronto. pic.twitter.com/Qe1QyORxAV
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 4, 2020
The trade speculation started right away, spurred on by the fact that Toronto’s number one goalie, Frederik Andersen, left Monday’s game against Florida after a collision with Panther Frank Vatrano. Although Andersen played the remainder of the period, he left the game and went through the concussion protocol which he passed. He has been ruled out of today’s game with what is called a neck injury.
Back goalie Michael Hutchinson came into the game and allowed three goals as the Leafs blew a 3-1 lead and lost 5-3. With the loss, the Leafs are now out of the playoff picture, one point behind third place Florida.
The speculation
Toronto is getting desperate. They already fired their coach and have made numerous roster moves and to miss the playoffs would be a huge disappointment. There have been many rumors about the Leafs’ interest in Georgiev and this raised it to a fever pitch.
Why does it make sense? If the Rangers and Leafs are close to a deal for Georgiev, it would an issue for him to start against the Leafs. If they have already decided on a trade, the Rangers would not want to have him start his first game against the Blueshirts. Holding him out of the game keeps all of those scenarios at bay and it means that Hutchinson will get the start.
David Quinn really had no good reason for not starting Georgiev in his post-practice comments. He said they were obviously aware of his record against the Leafs. “We thought about that, but we just decided to do this.”
Quinn went on to say that in the three goalie rotation, it won’t be a strict rotation, but will be based on who is playing well. When asked if the reason he is not starting Georgiev is that he has only played one period since before the break, Quinn’s answer was “that’s the reason he is probably going to play on Friday.” That makes no sense at all.
The reality is that if Toronto is the ultimate landing spot for Georgiev, there is no better time for for Leafs GM Kyle Dubas to pull the trigger than right now. Andersen has a concussion history and Michael Hutchinson has been pretty awful. He is 4-8-1 with a 3.62 goals against average and a .886 save percentage.
At any rate, we should know the answer by Thursday.It would be in the Rangers’ best interest to absolutely strafe Hutchinson tonight.