Facing elimination, it’s Igor Shesterkin in goal for the Rangers

Igor Shesterkin will finally make his postseason debut  for the New York Rangers tonight.

The New York Rangers will finally get to see their number one goaltender in net as Igor Shesterkin is healthy and ready to play.   He’ll start as the Rangers are facing elimination in Game Three of the their Stanley Cup Qualifying series against the Hurricanes.

Brendan Lemieux will also make his postseason debut, replacing Steven Fogarty in the lineup.   He had missed the first two game while serving a suspension for an illegal hit to the head.   It wasn’t clear where Lemieux will play in the lineup, but he could slot on the left of Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier on the third line or he could play with Brett Howden and Greg McKegg on the fourth line.

David Quinn spoke to the media after practice and addressed the lack of offense, “Our puck support has been so poor, so poor.  One of the things that we really did well in the second half of the season,  we supported the puck, helping each other other out, there was quick puck movement , there was a pace to our game, there was a rhythm to our play in the offensive zone, We haven’t had any of that…When we got down 3-1 we lost a lot of our passion, we looked deflated, we didn’t quit but we looked deflated.”.

When asked about the Tony DeAngelo and the power play, Quinn said  “Our power play in general has to better….not only have we have not been productive from a scoring standpoint…it hasn’t  looked great.  Everybody has to be better throughout the lineup, not just one guy, so I think every guy has to taken it upon themselves to realize what the situation we’re in and I think we’re gonna get a better effort from everybody tonight. ”

As for the team’s mindset going into the game, Quinn said “I think our guys feel good, as crazy as that may sound right now, our guys are excited about playing tonight, (they) know that the things we haven’t done well, where we feel we’ve shot ourselves in the foot, we can correct and give ourselves a better chance to win tonight.”

The Rangers are the designated home team for tonight’s game so Quinn will get the last change and will try to negate the impact of the Hurricanes’ top line.  In two games, the line of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen has torched the Rangers for four goals and ten points.  We’ll see if that makes a difference.

The Rangers have to get off to a better start and they need to get on the scoreboard first.  The Hurricanes rarely lose when they score first and in this Qualifier Round, in the first 18 games, the team that has scored first has won 14 times.

About the game

Game time is 8pm and it will be televised on MSG Network locally and on NBCSN nationally. The radiocast will be on ESPN 98.7 FM.   MSG Networks pregame show will start a half hour before game time.

Blue Line Station’s live chat will be available again tonight.  Look for the thread to go live about a half hour before the game starts.  Join in and share your thoughts with your fellow Ranger as the team starts its big comeback.